Exploring India’s Ancient Spice Route (with a Modern twist!)
There’s more to grocery store aisles than you’d think
Narrator: “A new girl arrives in New Delhi, the capital of India and now has to buy groceries.”
My first few months in Delhi felt like I had been cast in a Bollywood movie without subtitles. The city felt chaotic, everyone seemed to have rote learned the ten colour-coded Metro routes, and I was still getting used to taking autos without wondering what their notified ‘auto routes’ were (like we did in Calcutta).
My first auto ride to find a supermaket near me introduced me to ‘Modern Bazaar’ in Greater Kailash. “What an oxymoron”, I thought as I smiled up at the yellow and red coloured name board from across the street. A ‘Modern’ Bazaar? It etymologically couldn’t have been. The word ‘bazaar’ originated in the 16th century in Persia and was not, in fact, as modern as this supermarket was wishing me to believe. This was going to be an interesting evening.
Upon entering this Bazaar, I was welcomed by the sight of red Fuji Apples and the familiar click of a cash register in the distance. As the new kid on the block, I wanted to immediately blend in with the South Delhi aunties ahead of me and thus grabbed a shopping cart. I saw some aunties hold their carts like a Coach bag. I decided against it and walked towards the Fuji Apples (honestly the best kind of apples in the world, and I think I might be right).
Feeling quite pleased with myself, I soon left the store with my loot for the month and a routine for the next two years. Modern Bazaar became my sanctuary, part of my self care routine, and a safe space to contemplate all my life choices while deciding the type of cheese I wanted for the month.
But it is not about fruits that I wish to write today. Nor is it about the South Delhi wisdom I have amassed over the years. In the bustling corridors of supermarkets, amidst a kaleidoscope of goods, lies a humble yet enchanting section that often escapes our attention — the spice racks.
These unassuming shelves, adorned with jars of vibrant hues, hold within them a treasure trove of history that spans the depths of the subcontinent’s past. These condiments carry tales as old as time itself. They’ve witnessed empires rise and fall, traversed ancient trade routes, and sparked expeditions that have shaped the world map. Yet, in our modern rush, we often overlook the rich narratives encapsulated within these jars of spices.
Think about this: How often do we pause to ponder the origins of the spices that grace our tables? From the fiery allure of red chilli to the aroma of cardamom, each spice whispers tales of conquests and trade, of cultures intermingling, and civilizations thriving. They are not merely flavor enhancers but the silent custodians of a legacy that spans a millennia.
Let’s chronicle the Spice Route in 5 steps:
- The Spice Routes (maritime routes) were established around 3000 BCE and this was two thousand years before the Silk route (the land route) was established. True to its name, the land route was used to trade silks, while the maritime routes were used to trade cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and pepper etc.
2. If India had been trading in spices for centuries and had been producing 70% of global spices, why did it take the Europeans until the 15th century to come to India for spice trade? Its simple: the lobby of middlemen. For almost 5,000 years, Arab traders had a monopoly over the spice trade. Arab merchants would tell fantastic tales about the adventures and trials they would have to face to reach the spice growing regions of India and Ceylon. Their tales would assure them high prices for the spices. Myths associated with phoenix, giant eagles, dragons were created to hide the source of the spices and safeguard the trade monopoly of the Arabs.
For examples, in The Story of Spices by John Parry, there is an anecdote as told by Herodotus about the ‘method’ the Arabians had used to gather cinnamon:
Great birds, they say, bring the sticks which we Greeks call cinnamon, and carry them up into the air to make their nests. The Arabians, to get the cinnamon, use the following artifice. They cut all the oxen and beasts of burden that die in their land into large pieces and place them near the nests: then they withdraw to a distance, and the old birds, swooping down, seize the pieces of meat and fly with them up to their nests; which not being able to support the weight, break off and fall to the ground. Hereupon the Arabians return and collect the cinnamon, which is afterwards carried from Arabia to other countries. (Parry 38)
3. So why on earth did Vasco Da Gama come to India? To break the abovementioned trade monopoly. He found a sea route to India from the Cape of Good Hope which he realized would break the trade monopoly that the Arabs had and would make an inroad for his people, the Portuguese. The main spice brought back to Portugal soon became black pepper.
A random fun fact I love: Did you know that when Rome was captured by the Visigoths in 410 AD (centuries before any of this was happening), they demanded a ransom of around 3,000 pounds of black pepper!
4. So what do the English have to do with all this? Queen Elizabeth I commissioned England’s powerful navy to achieve one major objective: obtain spice cargoes. This does not come as a surprise since, by then, dockworkers in London had begun receiving their bonuses in cloves! Eventually, the East India Company came and obtained way more than just spices. That is a blog for another day.
5. So what happened to the Spice Route? The spices that were once unique and exclusive to India seized to be so because of globalization and advancement in science and tech. Spices were soon able to grow at scale in other parts of the world with similar climates. By the end of the 20th century, the Spice Route itself lost its significance and was relegated to just a few paragraphs in our ICSE and CBSE Middle School history textbooks.
Buying black pepper, cinnamon, cloves and other spices is so inexpensive now that it seems hard to believe that they were once valued as highly as gold and silver. So, the next time we stroll through grocery store aisles, can we spare a moment to acknowledge the spices of India? For within each of them lie the vibrant, intricate tales of the Indian subcontinent itself!
This blog is dedicated to my mother, Sanam Hazarika, whose masala dabbas will one day belong to my sister and me. Lots of love, Ma!
