A Happy Body Is a Healthy Body: An Ayurvedic Cookbook

By Mahendri Arundale and Amina Rahman

The people of ancient India turned to their physicians (vaidyas) and wise seers to make their bodies, minds, and spirits happy with a system of diet, healing, and health maintenance called Ayurveda (knowledge of life), which is based on nature and its healing power.
Food was analyzed based on taste, digestion, and “gastric fire” (agni), or the ability to digest and assimilate food. This time-tested system of healing is based on what, when, and how we eat and is documented in the Vedas (books of ancient knowledge).
A Happy Body Is a Healthy Body reveals that most diseases can be traced to an improper diet. Fortunately, nature’s gift to us is food, herbs, and spices to promote healing – as long as we know how to use them.
Drawing on three decades of research, Mahendri Arundale provides more than a plant-based cookbook of recipes and instructions, which would be valuable in itself. She also reveals priceless Vedic knowledge that has endured for thousands of years.

The book also includes a self-assessment to help you discover your body’s energy type, so you take full advantage of rejuvenating recipes and find simple ways to relax when stressed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781663251985

Mahendri Arundale

The author Mahendri Arundale discovered food is a potent medicine and wrote this cookbook based on nature and its healing power. We cannot avoid disease, decay, old age, and death, but we can delay this process if we use common sense, take the time to eat the right foods, and listen to the wisdom of our bodies.

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Copyright © 2023 Mahendri Arundale

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is not intended to diagnose, mitigate, treat, cure, or prevent disease but to enlighten curious readers of the world’s oldest healing system based on nature and its healing power. The information given here is in no way a substitute for your own inner guidance or consultation with your licensed health care professional.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Cover design and illustrations by Amina Rahman

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5096-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5199-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5198-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023909431

iUniverse rev. date: 09/01/2023

For those who kept this ancient healing system alive

The life of all living things is food and all the world seeks food. Complexion, clarity, good voice, long life, understanding, happiness, satisfaction, growth, intelligence are all established in food.

—Charaka Samhita, 349

Let your food be your medicine, your medicine be your food.

—Hippocrates, Greek physician

(460 BC–370 BC)

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: Discussion of the Culinary Wisdom of Ancient India

Chapter 1     Culinary Wisdom of Ancient India

Chapter 2     Suggested Foods for Your Energy

Chapter 3     Six Essential Tastes (Rasa) and Actions of Food in Indian Cuisine

Chapter 4     Astringent Taste

Chapter 5     Bitter Taste

Chapter 6     Pungent Taste

Chapter 7     Salty, Sour, and Sweet Tastes

Chapter 8     Tastes for Cold and Hot Seasons

Part 2: Recipes

Chapter 9     Spice Blends, Oils, and Dairy

Chapter 10   Soups

Chapter 11   Khichadis

Chapter 12   Legumes (Dal)

Chapter 13   Grains

Chapter 14   Breads

Chapter 15   Vegetables

Chapter 16   Chutneys and Salads

Chapter 17   Desserts, Fruits, and Nuts

Chapter 18   Water and Fruit Juices

Chapter 19   Digestives

Chapter 20   Rejuvenating Recipes

Glossary

Bibliography

FOREWORD

I am pleased to write this foreword to Ms. Mahendri Arundale’s cookbook A Happy Body Is a Healthy Body: An Ayurvedic Cookbook. It is the result of over three decades of research, travel, and educational and professional interviews with experts of Ayurveda (science of life), considered the oldest healing system based on nature and its healing power.

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, like his Indian counterparts, also believed and argued that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the gods but the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits. His therapeutic approach was also based on the healing power of nature, including fasting and a mixture of honey and vinegar. The Hippocratic medicine recommended a healthy diet and physical exercise as a remedy for most ailments. If this did not work, some type of medication, processed mostly from plants for their medicinal elements, was prescribed.

Today, domestic and foreign cuisines have evolved into an art and science. The author has shared her knowledge and perspective of the healing aspects of foods from India, curry herbs and spices, their sources, their flavors, their taste, their preparation, their service, and how they can help us better to stay healthy in this digital age. What we eat affects our health, constitution, and well-being, which is a key to living longer and healthier lives.

Dr. Rashid Baghai-Naini, MD

Primary Care Center, PA

Silver Spring, Maryland

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The experience and knowledge of many scientists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, medical and culinary professionals, friends, and food lovers made this book possible, and I am greatly indebted to them. Acknowledged are the archaeological excavations of the ancient Indus Valley civilization of 2500 BCE at Mohenjo-Daro (the city of the dead) and Harappa, traced to Ayurveda, the oldest healing system in the world based on nature. My gratitude to the ancient physicians Charaka, author of Charaka Samhita; and Susruta, author of Susruta Samhita; the Hakims of Unani; and Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, for their invaluable contribution to the healing science of food, nutrition, and medicine.

For my research efforts in India, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the eminent scholars who have contributed to the success of my work: Dr. P. K. Warrier, MD, managing trustee and chief physician; Dr. N. V. K. Varier, MD, and chief editor; Mr. Vijayan Varier of Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakal, Kerala; Dr. A. M. Fasiuddin Ahamed, MD, professor and principal; Dr. G. Ganapathey, MD, professor and head of the Department of Medicine, Government Siddha Medical College, Madras; Professor P. Jeyaprakash Narayanan, MD; Dr. V. R. Seshadri, assistant secretary, the Indian Medical Practitioners’ Co-Operative Pharmacy and Stores (IMCOPS); Dr. S. Chidambarathanu Pillai, founder, Siddha Center and International Institute of Thanuology; Dr. (Mrs.) S. Girija, MD, Madras; Dr. S. K. Mitra, MD, medical adviser; Mr. N. S. Vasan; Mr. B. R. Chhaya and Mr. R. D’Silva of the Himalaya Drug Company, Bombay; Institute of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences, Bangalore; Dr. S. Vijayan, chief editor, International Institute of Ayurveda, Coimbatore; the late Mr. M. S. Seetharamiah, Hindu-Vedic astrologer, New Delhi; the late Dr. Kaviraj Kishinchand Panjabi and Vaidya Kanta D. Jetley; Ayurved Praveen of V. R. Sukhramdas Ojha Aushadhalaya, Bombay; Dr. K. M. Nadkarni; Dr. Vasant Lad; Vaidya (Dr.) Bhagawan Dash, New Delhi; and Dr. R. S. Agarwal of Shri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry.

My thanks to Shri Madhusudan, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratisthan, Delhi; Mr. K. V. Gopalakrishnan and Mr. S. Y. Raje, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay; Institute of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences, Bangalore (a charitable hospital); Dr. Varsha Das, director, National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi; Dr. (Mrs.) Sudha Asokan, MD, Ayurveda Kendra; Dr. (Mrs.) Jamuna Kurup, MML Center for Rheumatic Diseases, New Delhi.

Gratefully acknowledged is the invaluable assistance and hospitality rendered by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India Offices in Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, Cochin, Mumbai, New Delhi, India, and New York and Los Angeles, as follows: Mr. S. S. Boparai (KC), director general; the late Dr. (Mrs.) Poornima Sastri, regional director, South India; Mr. Ram P. Chopra, director, North America; Mr. Vikas Rustagi, regional director, India Tourism, Mumbai, and Mrs. Shobha S. Kumar, assistant director, India Tourism, Incredible India, Mumbai; Mrs. Promila Sawhney; Mr. Ram Bali; Mrs. Anjani Patil; Mrs. Rekha Khosla; Mr. K. K. Trehan; Mr. M. K. Lakhanpal, Director of Hospitality, and Mr. Vikas Rastogi, Assistant Director of Hospitality; Mr. Ranjit K. Guha Roy; Mr. P. Rangarajan; Mrs. Meenakshi Mehta; Mrs. Nila Nad; Mr. Anup Kumar Saha; Mrs. Kokila Vyas, National Commission for Women; Mr. R. A. Stanislaus; Mr. Sachdev; Mrs. K. Anandhi; Mr. Abhay S. Mehta and Mr. Surendra M. Mehta, International Vegetarian Society; Mr. Mayank Mehta, Food and Beverage Manager, Taj Coromandel Hotel, Madras; Mr. Satish and Mrs. Shanti Patel; Mr. T. Nandakumar and Mr. P. S. S. Thampi, Spices Board of India; Tea Board of India; Coffee Board of India; Air India; Indian Airlines; The Oberoi, Taj, & Ashoka Group of Hotels; Mr. Matthew C. Thomas, Food and Beverage Manager; Mr. Krishnan Nair, chef, Malabar Hotel; Mr. Xavier Wilson, Week Tours, Cochin; Mrs. Amaji Reddi; Ms. Naveena Reddi of Annapoorna Enterprises, and Ms. Renuka Reddi, New Delhi; Ms. Meher Sanjana, Mumbai; the late Mrs. Hiroo Kochar, Mumbai; Ms. Parveen Talha, Lucknow; Ms. Usha Bajaj, Noida, New Delhi; Mr. M. Narender Kumar; the late Mrs. Nomita Dev Chandy of Ashraya, Bangalore; Mr. K. Natarajan, editor of Photo Flash for his photographs, New Delhi; the late Mr. Zargham Haider, senior regional director, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Bombay.

In the United States, my grateful thanks to Dr. Edwin Hill, MD, of Beverly Hills, California; Mr. Ken and Mrs. Helen Kleinberg; the late Mr. Harold A. Lipton, Esq., and Mr. Leon Kaplan, Esq., Los Angeles, California; Mr. Michael S. Gross, Esq., Director of Legal Services, and Mr. Umair Kazi, Esq., attorney-at-law, The Authors Guild, Inc., New York; Dr. Marvin E. Lawrence, MD, FAGG, Digestive Disease Center, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Silver Spring, Maryland, for his feedback; Dr. and Mrs. Scott Becker, MD, Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Surgery; Dr. Ekatrina Tomenko, DDS, Family Dentistry; Dr. Atiya H. Gopalani, MD, FACOG, Gynecology, Gyn. Surgery, Adolescent Gynecology, Silver Spring, Maryland; Mrs. Eileen Nauman, author American Book of Nutrition & Medical Astrology, and the late yoga therapist at Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and Pune, India, for their professional expertise; the Los Angeles Public Library; Dr. Deepak Chopra, MD, president of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, and Dr. Kumuda Reddy, MD; Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Massachusetts; Mr. Steve Alexis, Asiana Airlines; Ms. Gloria Van Giesen; Ms. Barbara Hansen, food editor, the Los Angeles Times; Mr. Tony Barnard for his photographs; Mr. Gregory and Mrs. Rajashree Chapman, Los Angeles; Dr. Nobiyuki Fukinbara, OMD, CA; Mrs. Fatou Jallow; Mr. Craig and Mrs. Laurie Maloney; Ms. Patricia Staffeldt; Mrs. Renata Baker; Mr. Gopal and Mrs. Nalini Kekke; Mrs. Subhalaxmi Vallabh; Ms. Ingrid Smith; Mr. Warren Buckingham; Mr. Dane Staulbaum; Ms. Susan Eastwood; Ms. Joan Thomas; Mr. Steve Wilson; Ms. Maureen Wheeler; Mrs. Jatinder K. Khural; Mrs. Luann Battersby, attorney-at-law, Silver Spring, Maryland; Ms. Devora Feliz and Ms. Sofia Cruz of Primary Care Center, Silver Spring, Maryland; Mr. Louis Cantolupo; Ms. Hien Phan; Mr. Sanjeev and Mrs. Falguni Singh of Virginia; Mr. Alek Dass-Adepy of Minerva Indian Cuisine Restaurant, Rockville, Maryland; Mr. Arthur Gaul of Hyattsville; Mr. Steve Murdock and his dining companions; the Authors Guild, New York; the late Mr. James W. Thornton of the James W. Thornton Company, Los Angeles, for his review and helpful suggestions; Ms. Amina Khallis, Ms. Miriam Khallis, and Ms. Theodora L. Malloy of Washington, DC; the Leisure World Friends of India Association (LWFIA); Mr. Pradeep Kapur, former ambassador of India to USA and Mrs. Kavita Kapur; Mr. Guru and Mrs. Anasuya Prasad; Ms. Jayanthi Sambasivan; Mr. Suresh and the late Mrs. Neela Deodhar; Mr. Madhav and Mrs. Beena Deshmukh; Mr. Thomas V. and Mrs. Meena Isac; Mr. Ashok and Mrs. Shobha Madhav; Ms. Maureen Freeman, Director of Communications, Leisure World News of Maryland; and CreativeCommons.

In Canada, my thanks to Mrs. Magda Sabella-Lasserre of Ritz-Carlton Kempinski Montréal; Dr. Vladimir and Dr. (Ms.) Galina Seshchenko, Montréal, Québec; Mr. Allan and Ms. Chantal Reeves, Paris, France; Mr. Ishwar and Mrs. Veera Prasad; Mr. Ian and Mrs. Tina Prasad Smith; and Ms. Karishma Prasad of Melbourne, Australia.

An infinite debt of gratitude to Bill and his many friends around the world for reminding me that daily acceptance and gratitude are keys to freedom. An abundance of thanks to my late dear friends Mrs. Kamala Devi Beaumont of Newport Beach, California; Mr. George Morgan Wupperman of Santa Monica, California; and Mr. Bill Waters of Los Angeles, California, for their kindness. Many thanks to the late Mr. N. C. Jain; my sisters for their coordinating efforts in India; and my son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren and their spouses.

I give immense thanks to my late grandmother Annapoorna Devi and my mother, Raja Rajeswari, for imparting their knowledge of food to us, the most powerful medicine, and for teaching us we are what we eat. I would like to acknowledge our chef Shafi, for his phenomenal food, and my late father, for planting a marvelous fruit orchard and vegetable and herb garden for Mother and us.

Finally, my profound thanks to Dr. Rashid Baghai-Naini, MD, Primary Care Center, for consenting to write the foreword to my book. Much gratitude to my late literary agent, Mrs. Emily Jacobson, senior vice president, Curtis Brown Ltd., New York, for her invaluable direction and patience; to my talented illustrator and digital and social media collaborator, Ms. Amina Rahman, for introducing my works to the digital age; and to Ms. Sheela Arundale for her illustrations. My thanks to Nolan Estes and iUniverse for publishing my cookbook.

INTRODUCTION

I was born and raised in India and came to America as a young bride in the early 1970s with my American husband, not knowing how to cook. The first six months of marriage in a new world were utterly bewildering and caused me much anguish. I lost twenty pounds and could not comprehend the depression that took hold of me because of culture shock and a severe case of homesickness. My mind drifted back to India and reflected on the happy days spent in my mother’s herb garden with our cook, Shafi, who often indulged my childish fancy: Missy baba, you should learn the science and art of Indian cooking.

Very simply, I missed my mother’s cooking, and my waking hours were spent obsessing over the delicious aroma of her foods. My body yearned for fresh curry and rice, vegetables, fish, and lentils seasoned with healing Indian spices, and I knew if I didn’t do something about it, I would surely die of malnutrition. One afternoon, my husband took me out to explore out-of-the-way grocery stores in Hollywood, where I saw a young couple from India walking on the boulevard with their two young kids. I told my husband to stop the car, and I greeted them with a smile, saying, Namaste. Where can I find a store that sells Indian curry spices and fresh vegetables? And is there a good Indian restaurant around?

The husband replied, There are no Indian markets or Indian restaurants in Los Angeles. We go to Bezjian’s Grocery on Santa Monica Boulevard for Indian curry spices.

I watched in disbelief as he walked away and his poor wife struggled with their infant and two-year-old boy.

What was that all about, honey? my husband asked.

Why can’t he help his wife? I huffed and puffed in quiet dismay. Let’s find this store on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Outside the store, I could barely hold my excitement and enthusiasm as the aroma of the familiar spices titillated my nostrils. Lined up on shelves in huge glass jars were the exotic Old-World spices that I had read about in One Thousand and One Nights¹ as a child and saw when I watched movies of the hair-raising adventures of Sinbad the sailor and his seven voyages: black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cumin, coriander, bay leaves, turmeric, and curry powder. Flashing through my mind were images of thousands of camel caravans lumbering in the hot desert sun of the Arabian Peninsula, carrying their spice treasures to ancient Rome, Greece, Phoenicia, and Alexandria.

I bought a little of everything and couldn’t wait to get home to begin my cooking adventure. A year later, after many burned pots and pans, irritated neighbors complaining to the fire department of suspicious smoke and strange aromas, and many visits to the Sears Home Store, the breakthrough finally came. I had mastered the art and technique of mixing Indian spices, and I prepared delicious curries and food combinations and introduced curry to my neighbors who were never the same again. They hosted weekend curry dinner parties for their friends and complained less about their body aches and digestive ailments.

These curry spices evoked fond memories of India and home. I remember Mother taking me with her and Ramu, the cook’s help, to the one-stop provision store at the local Sadar Bazar vegetable market (sabzi mandi) in Chandni Chowk (moonlit square), a former lavish residence of a young nineteenth-century Muslim queen. During our slow twenty-minute carriage (tonga) ride to the market, I asked what Mother was going to buy. Her reply was always the same: Rice, wheat flour, chickpea flour, cream of wheat, beans and lentils, herbs and spices, nuts, dried fruits, garlic, ginger, mint, coriander leaves, and fresh vegetables and fruits. She patiently explained how these natural food substances healed specific parts of the body: bones, brain, skin, kidneys, digestive tract, heart, blood, and liver. Like Hippocrates, she believed some illnesses could be treated only by nutrition. I marveled at her culinary knowledge.

My educational trips to the market ended abruptly when I was seven. One morning, my sister and I were on our way to school when I had a terrible bicycle accident that put me in the hospital for several months. The pills and penicillin injections brought little relief to the high fever and stubborn infection on my badly injured ankle. Father was away, defending our war-torn country in Kashmir, while the attending surgeon and physician prepared Mother for the worst.

She would hear none of it and at once went to work in her kitchen, drawing on the ancient culinary knowledge that her mother and grandmother had passed down to her. Mother prepared foods (rice and mutton, and legume and vegetable recipes with ghee [clarified butter], spices, and sesame seed candy) to help bring my fever down and strengthen my weak immune system. Twice a day for the next three months, Ramu brought these special meals and vegetable and fruit juices to the hospital for me. These extraordinary healing recipes and medicated sesame seed–oil massages, in combination with conventional therapies, helped to heal and save my ankle. And it was there at the Lucknow Military Hospital that I discovered food was a potent medicine.

According to Indian mythology, Brahma,² the Hindu creator god, first perceived the secrets of a mysterious healing system called Ayurveda (science of life) based on nature and its healing powers, and he passed it down to his disciples, physicians, and sages to learn the art for the welfare of humanity. Revealed to them were great truths about human life, vegetation, the workings of the human body, and medicine. There were no laboratories to evaluate the herb; by sprinkling water on them and evoking a particular chant (mantra), the qualities and actions of the plant were soon revealed to their inner eyes. Its aim was to restore balance and harmony in the body, mind, and spirit through a system of diet, herbal medicines, massage, cleansing, and purification, and a lifestyle discipline with meditation and yoga exercises.

The body of information known as Ayurveda was transmitted orally through songs, hymns, and verses known as the Vedas. Although their exact dates of origin are unknown, the Rig Veda (in praise of knowledge) is approximately 4,500 years old and the oldest known song in the world; in 128 hymns, it describes sixty-seven herbs and the practices of ancient India’s medicine. The Atharva Veda (collection of hymns, storehouse of knowledge) supplies further information about the source of this medicine, created some 3,200 years ago. The importance of gastric fire (agni) in digestion was stressed, and their findings were later compiled in the Charaka Samhita, a medical treatise of different plants, herbs, and spices used in food to prevent illness.

My cookbook is a revival of this extraordinary knowledge and wisdom of an ancient healing system that helps to keep the body happy and in a state of balance and harmony with its environment. Ordinary food substances such as