It is difficult to say if anything nearing ‘Indian curry’ of the West existed in Asoka’s time.  What is served in London and elsewhere as Indian curry is a modern thing. Curry is not an NIA word - and. according to the COED, is derived from Tamil kaṛi. That is not the London curry. The term will not be heard in common north Indian kitchens. The nearest equivalents there are kaliya (almost the London curry), tarkari 'cooked green vegetable' etc. There are many other terms in different NIA languages.  Indigenous recipe books ie ones not from the pen of western trained specialists might make the position clear. But I do not know of any dependable research on the history of Indian cooking.

Best

DB

From: Jo <jkirk@SPRO.NET>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Asoka: Roads and Animals
To: INDOLOGY@liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Wednesday, 17 August, 2011, 7:34 PM

 

Dear List,

 

Since I’m dying of curiosity, if I may ask, can someone tell me what is the edict’s term for ‘curry’?

 

Anthropologists are also skeptical of such number codes and have published about them-- but sorry, no references come to mind.

 

Thanks

Joanna

 

 

 

" Obliquely, the Ist Rock Edict: "Formerly in the kitchen of king Devanampriya Priyadarśin many hundred thousands of animals (bahūni

prāṇasatasahāsrani) were killed daily for the sake of curry"

[Hultzsch, 1925, p. 2]."

 

Sounds to me that one ought to apply the rule David Henige gives for premodern figures above ten thousand in his Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate: just as a beginning, knock off the last digit.  Henige deals with evidence from a lot of other places besides the Americas, though as best I recall not South Asia. 

 

 

Allen

 

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.

Asian Division, Library of Congress

Washington, DC 20540-4810

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.

 

 

 

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