Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:
The message
from Stewart Robert Hinsley contains
these words:

In message , Nick Maclaren
writes

Chillis are used in some of the, er, recipes in the Kana Sutra.

I was under the impression that Chlllis (Capsicum spp) were not
present in the Old World in pre-Columbian times.

The Kama Sutra was written even before Chinese navigators are
believed
to have been to the Americas, but I do have a hazy recollection
that
there has been an Asian variety of chilli pepper for a very long
time.

There's also the question of versions of the text, and the
faithfulness of translations. Either way, an ancient "public-domain"
text is likely to have been transmitted in varying forms. There are
various attempts at botanical and animal terms in versions of the
Bible, for example. But though I'm not an Indianist, even without
such variants it seems fair to speculate that Indian languages may
use some equivalent of "pepper" for both Old- and New-World species
just as we do in English; so it may not be necessary to assume the KS
is referring to capsicums.

I've just had a glance at the Burton translation, and the recipes at
the back leave most of the plant-names in Sanskrit, which is a
nuisance. My copy has no notes. Since he does put some of them in
Latin or English, I suspect that he was unable to find out what all
the Sanskrit names actually meant in modern terms.

--
Mike.

In article ,
Rusty Hinge 2 writes:
| The message
| from Stewart Robert Hinsley contains these words:
|
| Chillis are used in some of the, er, recipes in the Kana Sutra.
|
| I was under the impression that Chlllis (Capsicum spp) were not present
| in the Old World in pre-Columbian times.
|
| The Kama Sutra was written even before Chinese navigators are believed
| to have been to the Americas, but I do have a hazy recollection that
| there has been an Asian variety of chilli pepper for a very long time.

A Web search indicates that Turbocapsicum anomalum was grown over
much of China, Japan and south-east Asia, and possibly one of the
many plants that was called Capsicum annuum (but which is now
classified as a Turbocapsicum).

Whether it was imported into India, I can't say for certain, but
it is not implausible. As I said, I haven't found a reference that
is both clear and authoritative on this matter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.