By Shireen Jamooji
January 26, 2026
While Republic Day tends to be all about tricolour sandwiches and tiranga laddoos, India's true history lies in ancient dishes we still enjoy today. This Republic Day, honour India's past with some bites that echo through time.
Dating to 1200 BCE, this rice-lentil blend appears in Indus Valley sites and Ayurvedic texts. Greek explorer Seleucus Nicator documented its popularity in 4th century BCE India, and it's a favourite till today.
The Rig Veda calls this roasted gram flour Saktu—ancient India's instant food. Travellers and monks carried it mixed with water or honey, requiring no cooking once ground.
Traced to the 8th-century Mewar Dynasty, these dough balls could bake buried in desert sand whilst soldiers fought. Bappa Rawal popularised this survivalist food over 1,200 years ago.
Sangam literature from 300 BCE describes these fermented rice pancakes sold in ancient Madurai's streets. Kerala's Jewish and St Thomas Christian communities have prepared them since the 1st century CE.
Recorded as Bakshyam in the Manasollasa, this sweet flatbread appears in 13th-century Marathi texts like Jnaneshwari. It's remained a festive staple for common people throughout the centuries.
India's oldest verified dessert, called Apupa in the Rig Veda. These honey-soaked barley cakes date back 3,000 years, now made with wheat and sugar, but essentially unchanged.
Known as Kshirika in Sanskrit, this 2,000-year-old dessert features in Buddhist Jataka tales. The 12th-century Manasollasa text details multiple versions with rice, milk, and sugar as ritual offerings.