Biryani Beyond Borders: Culinary Agency, Hybridity, and Space

Exhibit Curated by Abhik Banerjee, Georgia State University

What is Biryani?

Biryani is a rice and meat dish originating in the Indian subcontinent, but highly popular not just among the people of the region (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) but also in the South Asian diaspora living in the West and other parts of the world.

In recent times, biryani has transcended the South Asian food cultural boundaries and spilled over into the broader food culture of the world. It has become one of the most sought-after dishes after butter chicken and tikka masala, alongside the increasing regard for vindaloo and rogan josh in Europe, North America, and elsewhere.

Rice and meat (typically chevon, lamb, or chicken, but fish or prawns in some variations) are the two basic ingredients. Different versions use different varieties of rice (basmati/jeerakasala/chinigura). Garam Masala, which is a mixture of spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, star anise, caraway, nutmeg, mace, and cubeb, is a major condiment in the conventional styles. Saffron, essences of rose and fragrant screwpine, and meetha attar are generally the aromatics in the dish. Yogurt, garlic, ginger, and onion form the base of the broth. Herbs such as cilantro and mint are used alongside birista (crunchy fried onion slices), which are put in it while layering.

The Big Idea

Biryani is a material cultural artifact shaped by movement and exchange.

Through ingredients, techniques, and regional adaptations, biryani maps the entanglement of Persian, Central Asian, and Subcontinental foodways, demonstrating how cuisine produces meaning beyond taste—through hybridity, agency, and place.

Dimensions and Weight

There are no fixed dimensions and weight of biriyani like a concrete object or artifact; however, biriyani does have a physical presence, measurement, and perception.

Biryani pots for cooking: a degh (a traditional, wide-mouthed, cylindrical pot with a thick, heavy base made of copper, brass, aluminum, or stainless steel) or a handi (deep round body with a narrow-constricted mouth and thick, heavy base).

A modern degh

Photograph

Source: Ebay

A standard biryani degh or handi has 12-15 inches of bottom diameter with a capacity of 2.5-8 kg (5.5-17 lbs.). However, a commercial degh or handi can have 25-28 inches of bottom diameter with a capacity of 10 kg (22 lbs.) – 16 kg (35 lbs.) of cooked biryani. Heights range from 7 to 13 inches.

A modern handi

Photograph

Source: Ebay

The height of the pot is important because biryani is layered in a pot with rice, meat, potatoes, herbs, and birista (crispy fried onions), then the lid is sealed and the pot is slowly pressure-cooked.

Gazing at the history of Biryani pots

A thousand-year-old metal cooking utensil that is most likely an earlier form of handi (top).

Photograph

Source: Vechaar Cultural and Heritage Museum for Utensils, Ahmedabad, India.

19th-century hammered copper utensils used in the kitchens of Awadh during the times of the Nawabs (on the right). Note the handi on the right and the degh at the bottom of the image.

Photograph

Source: Dastarkhwan-e-Awadh: The Cuisine of Awadh, Bhatnagar and Saxena, HarperCollins, 1997.

19th-century Indo-Persian Mughal Tinned Copper Bowl with engravings (on the right).

Photograph

Source: 1stDibs Antique Collection.

Hammered copper deghs (on the left), probably from the Mughal period.

Photograph

Source: Image credit- "Village Degh." Collection unknown. Article in Slurrp by Devi Pujari.

Pots in Paintings

A Handi and a Degh from the Delhi Sultanate Period. (above)

Painting: Miniature

Source: Ni’matnama (The Book of Delights), 15th-century manuscript, Indian Office Library in London

The images of utensils in these paintings may give an idea about the dimensions of handis and deghs used in cooking. It would be quite probable that pilafs or earlier forms of biryani were prepared in these types of pots.

Akbar receives the Iranian Ambassador Sayyid Beg in 1562, illustration to the Akbarnama, about 1590 – 95. (above). Notice the handi or degh-like pots in the lower left corner.

Painting: Miniature. Opaque watercolor on gold paper by Farrukh Beg.

Source: Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Etymology of Biryani

The chart on the left shows the texts and records that mention the name of biryani. The etymology of pilaf, being a precursor of biryani, is also visualized here.

Chart Image

Source: Chiswick Chap, Wikipedia article on Biryani.

The map of ancient Persia, Persianate nations, and the Indian subcontinent on the left shows the food and culinary cultures that led to the inception of pilaf and biryani.

Map Screenshot

Source: Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, Lizzie Collingham, Oxford UP, 2006.

Before Biryani: Rice and Meat Dishes

The epic Rāmāyana (400 CE–6000 BCE) records that Rāma and Lakshmana hunted animals for food during exile, and that Sitā favored "rice cooked with deer meat, vegetables, and spices" (māmsabhutadana) (Achaya 54).

"Rama, with Sita and Lakshmana in the forest, from the Ramayana," c.1790. (right)

The painting depicts deers hunted by Rama and Lakshmana for consumption.

Painting. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper.

Source: San Diego Museum of Art, USA.

Note the sentence in Book 2, Chapter 52, verse 89 from the epic Ramayana

Manuscript section and exposition

Source: Valmikiramayan.net

Note the sentence in book 2, chapter 45, verse 9 from the epic Mahabharata

Manuscript section and exposition.

Source: enjoylearningsanskrit.com

There is also substantial evidence of meat and rice consumption in the Southern, Western, and Eastern regions of India, though caste and class likely shaped access to such dishes.
These sources demonstrate that meat and rice dishes predate both the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal rule. At the same time, the biryani we recognize today emerges through a convergence of Hindustani food culture with Persian and Central Asian influences, rather than through rupture.

The Mahābhārata (events 400 BCE–200 CE; present form c. 400 CE) documents pishthaudana, a dish of rice cooked with minced meat (Achaya 54).

"Royal Hunt," folio from a Mahabharata. 1800-1850. (left)

Painting. Ink and opaque watercolor on paper.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The origins of biryani are complicated by an interplay of history and myth. The mythical-historical aspects of the two epics conform to this. They also help avoid binarization of food culture (Hindus=vegetarians; Muslims/Christians= non-vegetarians).

Mughal Imperial Kitchens and Culinary Syncretism

Studies on biryani strongly indicate its origin in the imperial kitchens of the Mughals. The Mughal Empire was founded in 1526 by Babur, a Timurid prince from Central Asia. There are no written records linking Babur directly to biryani or pilaf. The employment of Persian chefs and cooks under Humayun played a major role in introducing Persian culinary techniques across Mughal India, particularly in northern, northwestern, eastern, and central regions, as well as the Deccan, shaping elite meat-based dishes and culinary taste.

A map of India in 1605, at the end of the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar. (above)

Map

Source: Copy of Historical Atlas of India, Charles Joppen SJ, Longmans, Green and Co., Fowler&fowler, 1907.

Sweetwater tank complex at the back of Diwan-i-Khas, Fatehpur Sikri. (above). Fatehpur Sikri served as the capital of the Mughal empire during Akbar's reign from 1571 to 1585. According to Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, a historian specializing in Mughal history, architecture, and archaeology, the blackened building and the area behind it were the royal kitchen complex.

Photograph

Source: "Akbar's Cook, His Residence and the Kitchen Establishment," Rezavi & ASHA's History and Archaeology Blog.

"The concept of ṣulḥ-i kull is well known as a core feature of the Mughal Empire’s state ideology, one that made it... arguably the most tolerant and inclusive state in the entire early modern world. Often translated as 'peace with all,' the term has become almost synonymous in South Asian historiography with the policies of religious pluralism promoted by the dynasty’s most celebrated emperor, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar... (r. 1556–1605) and his famed courtier and biographer, Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak."

Source: Kinra, "Revisiting the History and Historiography of Mughal Pluralism," Pluto Journals.

"Akbar and the Jesuits." (below). The two men dressed in black are the Jesuit missionaries.

Painting. Miniature from the illustrated folio of the Akbarnama manuscript, 1605.

Source: Chester Beatty Library. Wikimedia Commons.

Akbar’s syncretic socio-political ideology played a massive role in bringing together the three major cuisines under a large umbrella of Mughaliya cuisine. Ain-i-Akbari provides a long list of dishes that were cooked in the imperial kitchen, where meat and rice are used together with other select spices.

Ain-i-Akbari (Administration of Akbar), written by Abu'l Fazl, Akbar's court historian, is a detailed account of the Mughal empire's administration under Akbar.

Scanned image

Source: PDF version of the book

The first volume (Books I and II) of the Ain-i-Akbari was translated from Persian to English by Heinrich Blochmann in 1873. These are three excerpts from Book I, A'I'N 23, and titled "The Imperial Kitchen."

The three volumes of the text was published by the Asiatic Society of Calcutta as a part of their Bibliotheca Indica series by 1896.

The rice and meat dishes outlined in the Ain-i-Akbari consistently employ rice, meat, ghee (clarified butter), and select spices, indicating a) the induction of aromatic ingredients, and b) incorporation of Hindustani foodways (usage of ginger, cardamom, and cloves), which became central to the development of biryani.

On the other hand, pilaf, an old Persian dish of meat and rice cooked slowly in a sealed pot, was introduced into the Mughal Imperial kitchen, highlighting the symbiosis of Mughaliya cuisine.

Simply put, all these dishes and the styles came together to forge biryani.

Awadh after the Mughals: Cultural Ascendancy, Culinary Refinement, and the Making of Biryani

As Mughal authority weakened, regional Nawabs (rulers)/governors of Lahore, Murshidabad, Awadh, and Hyderabad, many of Persian origin and formerly under Mughal administration, established themselves as independent rulers. Among these regions, Awadh (present-day Uttar Pradesh) emerged as the epicenter of Indo-Islamic culture, attracting poets, musicians, architects, chefs, and artists from across and beyond the subcontinent, and developing its own distinctive schools of architecture, poetry, and music (Collingham 94).

Among the many delectable dishes that originated and developed during the rule of the Nawabs, the Awadhi Yakhni Pulao became the cornerstone of Awadhi cuisine. This dish later took the shape of biryani.

In 1753, Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula moved the capital of Awadh to Lucknow, which came to rival Delhi as the cultural and culinary capital of North India, achieving a level of splendor and sophistication “scarcely paralleled in any other Indo-Islamic society” (Taylor Sen 192).

This tradition developed over the next two centuries of the Nawab regime. The Nawabs of Awadh patronized chefs to perfect nafāsat (elegance), nazākat (delicateness), and niyāmat (divine blessings), transforming eating from a quotidian activity into an act of luxury, encouraging experimentation, illusion, and the use of unusual ingredients.

The Kingdom of Awadh in 1856. (left)

Map

Source: Text-book of Indian History: Geographical Notes, Genealogical Tables, Examination Questions, W. H. Allen and Co. - Pope, G. U. 1880

Portrait of Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula, Nawab of Awadh. (below)

Painting. Originally a local artist, c. 1780, copying a painting by Johann Zoffany. Watercolour and gouache on card.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Photograph (scanned) of Sharar. (above)

Source: Scholar Publishing House, Delhi and Lucknow, India.

Abdul Halim Sharar, a playwright, essayist, and historian of Lucknow, “wrote a series of articles which appeared under the title of Hindustan Men Mashriqi Tamaddun ka Akhri Namuna” on the inception and culture of Lucknow in Awadh. Written between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these articles were later translated and edited by E. S. Harcourt and Fakhir Hussain and published as Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture (below) in 1975. This is a significant text to comprehend the Awadhi cuisine and culinary culture.

Scanned Image

Source: Internet Archive

The excerpt (left) discusses the difference between pulao and biryani while describing the different types of pulao.

Scanned image

Source: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture, 1975. PDF.

During this era, a profusion of aromatic spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cubeb, star anise, patthar ke phool, and caraway, as well as essences like kewda (fragrant screwpine), rose, and meetha attar (combination of essential aromatic oils) supplemented Mughal spices, though their assemblage was carefully restrained; lamb and chevon emerged as preferred meats. The dum pukht technique--slow cooking in sealed vessels over heat above and below--mentioned in Ain i Akbari but refined in Awadh, became central to locking in aroma and tenderness, and was indispensable to the Yakhni pulao.

Evolution of Biryani: Awadh's Contribution

A serving of the chevon pulao. (above). Although sold as biryani, Abu Baqr, owner and head chef, affirms that this is the near-authentic Awadhi yakhni pulao.

Photograph

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The yakhni pulao, prepared using meat stock, yogurt marinated lamb or chevon, aromatic spices, basmati rice, saffron-infused milk, meetha ittar, ghee, and dum pukht cooking in a handi or degh, is widely regarded as the precursor to biryani.

Pulao Wali Gali (Pulao lane), a neighborhood in Lucknow famous for renowned culinary artists. (left)

Photograph

Source: "Lucknow Bazars: Pulse of the City," Anubhuti Krishna, Sahapedia.

Idrees Biryani Restaurant, Lucknow. (above). This is one of the oldest restaurants (est. 1968) serving Awadhi yakhni pulao in the region.

Photograph

Source: Google Arts & Culture

Despite differences in technique--such as biryani’s layering of rice over spiced meat gravy, use of herbs, green chilies, birista (crunchy-fried onion slices), and kewra awater--pulao’s influence on biryani’s fundamental structure remains undeniable.

From Elite Dish to Cultural Icon: The Late Mainstreaming of Biryani

Biryani developed alongside pilaf, eventually spreading across South Asia into distinct regional forms--Kolkata, Hyderabadi, Dhaka, Thalassery, Lahore, and Awadhi--each shaped by local ingredients while retaining a shared structural core.

The Dum Pukht Restaurant, ITC Maurya, New Delhi, India. (right)

Photograph

Source: ITC Hotels Limited

The latest version of Biryani served at the Dum Pukht Restaurant, New Delhi, India

Photograph

Source: Instagram

Biryani was mainstreamed in its current form only in the last fifty to sixty years (Pant).

A key turning point came during the Ninth Asian Games in Delhi (1982), when ITC Maurya’s Dum Pukht Restaurant popularized Awadhi biryani among international delegates. There, restaurateur and food columnist Jiggs Kalra developed a restaurant-friendly method—pre-cooking meat and yakhni, layering them with rice and aromatics in sealed handis, and finishing the dish on demand—helping transform biryani from an elite preparation into a national and international culinary icon!

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