Ugadi Special Dishes & Its Scientific Significances

Hindu festival of new year “Ugadi” has come back this year again. We have spent many years with this Ugadi Indian festival. Ugadi meaning is Yuga - era and Adi - begining, which means starting of new era that is first day of new year. This new year is celebrated in nature with lush new green leaves on the trees and from human by celebrating with feast and decorations. This Ugadi new year is for nature and for human.

There are many spiritual stories linked to this Ugadi festival. In one story it mentions that, Ugadi is the day when Lord Brahmadeva started to create this universe. In other story it mentions that Lord Rama was officially crowned as King of Ayodhya on this day. In other story it mentions that Lord Krishna ended his life from Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga started from Ugadi day.

In this festival especially in South India we decorate our doors with mango leaves, Pooja room with flowers, Kitchen with feast foods, kids and adults with new clothes and exchange each other with neem leaves and jaggery mixture called as ‘Bevu Bella’. These are the traditional way of celebrating this Ugadi festival, as per the rituals made by our ancestors, but actually what is the reason behind it? Why do we do such things or cook particular special foods in festival? Is this has a scientific reason? All these should be known by every individual. Following any ritual blindly is not accepted and it is named as superstition by many people, we have to get into its roots and know the reasons. Ugadi festival also has scientific reason to follow in India. Now In this article you can find the scientific reason of this festivals food and ritual.

Vasantha rutu is the spring season which is the first season of the new year. There are totally 6 rutu in an year and each rutu has two months. In Vasantha rutu - Chaitra & Vaishakha are the two months. First day of spring season is celebrated as Ugadi festival or Gudi padwa.

In this Vasantha rutu, mucus in our body starts melting similar to as snow melts with sun rays. This melted mucus (kapha) has to be removed from the body properly, if not mucus related diseases like fever, cough, cod, sinus, skin allergies, itching, etc., will start. Rather than taking antibiotics or inhalers it is good to follow vasanata rutucharya (Spring season regimen) to expel out the mucus from the body. The traditional cuisine of our Ugadi festival is the spring season regimen which helps to expel the mucus from the body.

We Doctors at Mahanasa Ayurveda always inform that any festival traditional cuisines should not be meant only for the festival day, it has to continued until next festival. This is how our ancestors helped us to know about the seasonal regimen. Similarly in Ugadi festival or festival of spring in which we prepare the cuisine with jaggery, mango, neem, etc., are those foods which helps us to get relieve from mucus. Heatness of mango / water melon / Jaggery / horse gram / drum stick leaves or bitterness of neem / Creeper Vegetables / Fenugreek or so on can help Ito expel mucus.

The foods which are high in bitter, astringent taste, heat in nature to be used more along with Indian spices in Vasantha rutu first phase that is till Ramanavami festival, from then second phase of Vasantha rutu starts where body gets dehydrated and where we require liquid foods which helps in hydrating the body along with expelling mucus like butter milk, jaggery sharabath, mango sweets, etc.

Now a days the trend of creating feast food has made the changes in the traditional foods like deep fried vada, peanut laddu, tomato soup, sprout salad, curd rice, maida foods, sugar based sweets, etc., which are actually not scientific to be taken in spring season. These foods increases mucus (kapha) in the body, so please completely avoid these food preparation or consuming in spring season.

The art of ‘Bevu Bella’ is known to be sign of our life with mixture of good and bad movements. Of course, yes, but it is also indicated with neem being bitter to help in relieving kapha and jaggery being indicated not to use sugar in spring season.

Lots of healthy foods can be made from neem or neem flowers, like rasam, tambuli, chutney, tokku, chutney powder and so on. Not only the neem flower, but also the curry leaves, fenugreek leaves, fenugreek seeds, cucumber, gourd vegetables, beans, horse gram, radish, etc., we can use in this spring season to get rid of unwanted mucus and its related diseases. Using barley water or cumin seeds water is more useful rather tea or coffee in this spring season.

Here is a Ugadi ‘PACHADI’ Recipe for you:

Ingredients required:

1. Small chopped raw mango - 1/2 tsp

2. Jaggery powder - 1 tea spoon

3. Pepper powder - 1 pinch

4. Saindhava Salt - 1 pinch

5. Neem flower - 1 tea spoon

6. Tamarind juice - 1/2 tea spoon

7. Water - 150 ml

Method of preparation:

For water add jaggery powder and dissolve it. Then add tamarind juice, mix well and filter it. To the filtered water add salt and pepper. Then add mango pieces and sprinkle the neem flower on it. Mix all these once again. Now the pachadi is ready to drink or to eat with rice. This is also one of the food recipe which is used in Pooja on Ugadi day.

This pachadi is a complete food as it includes all six taste as per Ayurveda. Jaggery which is sweet in taste, tamarind which is sour in taste, saindava salt as salt taste, pepper as spice, neem flower with bitter taste and raw mango with astringent taste. This helps in increasing digestion capacity and also removes unwanted phloem from the body. This to be taken 1/4-1/2 glass by a person in a day and in Vasantha rutu weekly 3-4 times can be consumed. Consuming more than this amount also is not beneficial.

For more information contact Mahanasa Ayurveda, Bangalore.