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A Dish Made with 101 Herbs

Sanchayeeta Parashar
Sanchayeeta Parashar
Sanchayeeta is an aspiring writer from Assam who's passionate about exploring different tribes and sharing the beauty of their cultures with her readers. She is a resident writer for The Indegenous.

Reviving Assam's 101 Herbs Tradition

Assam, which serves as the gateway to Northeast India, is a prime example of natural beauty and floral abundance. If you happen to venture outside the city limits of the state, you will be greeted with an endless expanse of lush greenery that stretches as far as the eye can see. It's nothing less than a library to a botanist. There are several rare plants, herbs and even ferns found indigenously in Assam. It may not come as a surprise to learn that the locals have acquired the expertise of not only identifying these but also utilizing them for medicinal benefits, much before any botanist could scientifically identify them. This article takes you through a very fascinating ritual practiced in the Assamese(Axomiya) society which celebrates the GREENS.

CELEBRATING THE GREENS

Importance of having seasonal leafy vegetables during Bohag Bihu

Have you ever tried any dish prepared with herbs? Well, how many herbs did you add to it? probably five to ten ... But Assamese people have a tradition of cooking a very special dish which contains literally 101 different varieties of herbs (xaak/saak). In Assamese it is named"AXXO EK BIDH XAAK" (english translation: HUNDRED AND ONE TYPES OF HERBS).

Bihu

Rongali Bihu is the main festival of Assam. Celebrated with pomp and gaiety in the month of April, it marks the New Year of the Assamese calendar. The season of bihu paints every leaf with the color of spring and all the flowers bloom in joy and so do the people. The special herbal dish is prepared on the first day of Bihu and eaten in every household. A list of those herbs with their vernacular names is given below:

  1. Piyaz(Alium cepa)
  2. Nohoru(Allium sativum)
  3. Sal kuwori(Aloe vera)
  4. Tora(Alpinia nigira)
  5. Mati kaduri(Alternanthera sessilis)
  6. Pani khutura(A.philoxeroides)
  7. Hati khutura(Amaranthus spinosus)
  8. Khutura(A. viridis)
  9. Kalmegh(Andrographis heterophyllus)
  10. Kothal(Bacopa monnieri)
  11. Moha neem(Bambusa balcooa)
  12. Brahmi(Basella alba)
  13. Bholuka baah(benincasa hispida)
  14. Puroi sak(Boerhavia diffusa)
  15. Kumura(B.juncea)
  16. Panarnawa(Brassica nigra)
  17. Lai sak(Calamus erectus)
  18. Soriyah(Centella asiatica)
  19. bet gaz(Chenopodium album)
  20. Bor manimuni(Chrysanthemum coronarium)
  21. Bali bhotora(Cinnamomum bejolghota)
  22. jil mil(C.tamala)
  23. babori(Clerodendrum colebrookianum)
  24. pati hunda(C.serratum)
  25. Tez paat(C.viscosum)
  26. Nephaphu(Colocasia esculenta)
  27. Nangal bhanga(Commelina benghalensis)
  28. Dhopat tita(Corchorus capsularis)
  29. kochu
  30. kona himolu
  31. Tita morma
  32. Mahudi
  33. Ronga lau
  34. Halodhi
  35. Surat gas
  36. Ou tenga
  37. Dhekia
  38. Lai jabori
  39. Goru khis
  40. Keha raj
  41. Heloshi
  42. Man dhoniya
  43. Gakhiroti
  44. Sutiya lofa
  45. Makhioti
  46. Mahi thekera
  47. Khujithekera
  48. Bor thekera
  49. Bon jaluk
  50. Tenga mora
  51. Moshundari
  52. Horu mani muni
  53. Kolmou saak
  54. Dupor tenga
  55. Jati lau
  56. seng mora
  57. jetuka
  58. durun
  59. kasi doriya
  60. digh loti
  61. jika
  62. bhol
  63. kopou dhekia
  64. phutkola
  65. beli poka
  66. podina
  67. tita kerela
  68. bhat kerela
  69. haru meteka
  70. Anshu gas
  71. sojina
  72. nuni
  73. Norosingha
  74. Kol gas
  75. sukloti
  76. podum
  77. sewali
  78. bhet phul
  79. bon tulsi
  80. horu tengeshi
  81. Bor tengesi
  82. bhedai lota
  83. tita phul
  84. amlokhi
  85. pipolee
  86. arni pan
  87. singa paat
  88. hukloti
  89. bon jaluk
  90. modhu huleng
  91. hanh thengia
  92. malbhug khutura
  93. thereju tenga
  94. modhuri
  95. jetuli poka
  96. meshangi
  97. til
  98. tikoni barua
  99. tita bhekuri
  100. bengana
  101. tez moi

A TRADITION ROOTED IN SCIENCE

The time of year is marked with seasonal changes and hence there are high chances of falling ill. Therefore, this herbal dish is eaten on bihu as an immunity booster. The ingredients used in this recipe are all medicinal plants and each of them are specialized for different purposes.Every herb used in the recipe has an unique medicinal benefit. For instance if Tengesi tenga(Oxalis corniculata) boasts your memory , bhedailota{common name : skunk vine Botanical name:Paederia foetida} prevents gastrointestinal problems. In Assam it is believed that one who consumes this dish on the new years eve won't fall ill throughout the year. The exact proportions of the ingredients might vary from tribe to tribe.

BOHAG BIHU IS A FEW MONTHS AWAY BUT WHERE ARE THOSE 101 XAAK (HERBS)?

Unfortunately in today's world almost 90 per cent of the ingredients of this recipe are difficult to find not only in cities but also in villages. There was a time when about 100 different varieties of dhekia xaak were found in Assam,but today the scenario is not like that. Here are some of the causes for the same:

  • LOSS OF THE BAARI CULTURE: A traditional Assamese household is supposed to have a Baari (backyard/front yard) which should essentially include coconut trees, betel nut trees, and a XAKONI(an area in the yard dedicated to useful and medicinal herbs i.e xaak) Almost all the xaaks required for the dish would be grown in it. like Bor manimuni,xoru manimuni,dhekia,paleng,brahmi,etc.However, with urbanization,this culture is not seen in cities anymore.
  • NEW WAYS OF FARMING: An Assamese farmer has vivid knowledge of the various useful xaak . Earlier the peasants used to manually pluck the weeds from the crop field. Hence they only plucked the harmful ones and preserved the medicinal weeds. However, nowadays herbicides are used and these valuable xaaks are killed along with the harmful ones indiscriminately.
  • INVASIVE SPECIES: The foreign invasive weed Parthenium .sp is competing with local weeds like Brahmi, matikuduri and reducing their growth.
  • LACK OF KNOWLEDGE FOR FIELD IDENTIFICATION: I myself is an Assamese but being raised in a city I fail to identify the different Xaaks in field. The same goes for most of the people today. Even if we happen to find such rare plants we will be unable to identify them correctly unlike our grandparents could. For instance , there is a weed which morphologically resembles Manimuni a lot making it difficult to distinguish between the two.
  • REDUCTION IN THE DEMAND OF LOCAL FRUITS : I remember hearing the tales from my grandparents that their summer vacation would be incomplete without "poniyal" and"leteku" and they didn't even know what apples tasted like. However, if you happen to visit any local fruit vendor in Guwahati today you will hardly find him selling such fruits. In supermarkets, you are likely to find Apples, Dragon fruit, capsicum, strawberries, blueberries and other imported fruits which are not produced locally in Assam. Even people are not interested in buying local fruits anymore and hence market value has dropped. The same goes for the different Xaak also.
  • UNPLANNED URBANIZATION: The brahmi xaak and matikuduri (aquatic weed) even chillies and tomatoes once grew abundantly beside the drains. Earlier drains were just a passage for rainwater to flow through but unplanned urbanization has turned them into dumping grounds. Hence, such valuable plants don't grow there anymore.
  • MONOCROPPING OF TEA: Assam being the largest producer of tea, the government is encouraging small tea cultivators to convert vegetative land to tea gardens . If you happen to travel to Dhemaji district via Sonitpur,tea gardens are all you can see on both sides of the road.

EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING

A few years back the headlines of various newspapers stated the pleasant rediscovery of a rare indegenous plant named "Samus paat"{common name : Longevity spinach,Scientific name :Gynura procumbens}( because of its typical spoon shaped leaves) in the paddy fields of Bao rice. This news is a blessing in disguise. Just like foreign , invasive species from Australia are now appearing in the Indian subcontinent, there is a great probability that some local herbs have migrated deeper into the woods An article "plant migration and climate change " states that plants have moved faster to track climate change and maybe capable of faster migration than is in the paleo record.

Although such a study correlating climate change and disappearing of local herbs has not been done in Assam as of now, experts say that some if not all of the herbs are still there , latent in the lap of nature rejuvenating themselves.

REFERENCES

  • (Begum & Gogoi, 2006)
  • (Rahman,2021)
  • https://india.mongabay.com/2021/04/bihu-is-here-but-where-are-the-101-varieties-of-herbs-and-greens/