As we have shown, English sailors drank punch and made it famous all over the world. Many people deduce from this that punch is an English invention. In this post, we show why this is not true and why punch is an Indian invention.
An English invention?
Charles Bridges Mount suggested that punch was an English invention. [1-401][1-402] J. Taalboys Wheeler opined in 1878: “It is a curious fact, not generally known, that punch was an Indian drink invented by the convivial [note: English] Factors at Surat.”[2-21]
He also attributes the invention to the English. The chain of evidence for the English origin of the punch compiled by Charles Bridges Mount and David Wondrich and supplemented by us is as follows: [19]
John Fryer claims that the name punch comes from the Indian word “paunch” meaning “five”. This derivation as evidence that punch is an Indian invention is considered by both to be implausible, although they offer no other conclusive explanation for the etymological origin of the term punch than that it may have come from puncheon, for a barrel of a certain size, but here too they are inconclusive. They further state:
As early as the mid-16th century, the English and Dutch knew of a mixture of wine, sugar, lemons and spices, which would correspond to a punch.
Around 1600, English ships began to carry brandy, which was diluted with water.
The healing properties of citrus fruits for scurvy were also known as early as the end of the 16th century.
In his East India Company medicine book published in 1617, John Woodall recommends loading lemon juice on board to treat scurvy. He recommends taking this juice when ill or as a precaution, optionally mixed with sugar and brandy. He says one can also prescribe wine with sugar, almonds, cinnamon and rose water.
If you take both together, you would get a punch diluted with water.
It is documented that the seafarers were very fond of punch. The ingredients could be bought very cheaply in India and were thus affordable even for ordinary sailors.
Eventually, by the end of the 17th century at the latest, punch had established itself not only among sailors but also among the nobility and became a fashionable drink.
This chain of evidence is conclusive. It suggests that the recipe of a punch was already known in the Anglo-European tradition and therefore the sailors would have followed these recipes in India by simply using brandy with water instead of wine, and that is how the punch was created. In support of this thesis, it is also said that there are no Indian sources in which punch is described. So everything is clear, isn’t it? Unfortunately not.
An Indian invention!
We are of the opinion that Punch is an Indian invention. The chain of evidence compiled by Charles Bridges Mount and David Wondrich is quite correct in its compilation of facts, but the conclusions drawn from it are not.
There is evidence and weighty indications that make it seem more credible that punch is an Indian invention and that John Fryer was not fooled with his etymological derivation.
The origin of lemonade
We have already talked about some of the arguments in our post on the true origin of lemonade. Since we refer to the analyses made there in this chapter, the detailed source references are missing here, because they can be found there. We merely summarise them here and refer to the lemonade article for a detailed look. In addition, there is further evidence that speaks for an Indian origin of the punch. We will go into these in more detail afterwards.
In the article on lemonade we had stated:
The origin of the citron, one of the three original citrus varieties along with the mandarin and grapefruit, lies in Assam, India, at the foot of the Himalayas. It is already mentioned in the Vedas in the 8th century BC. The lemon developed from this as a cross with the bitter orange, which in turn descended from the mandarin and grapefruit, presumably in northern India. There is reliable evidence from the year 1000 onwards.
It is known that lemonade was an everyday drink in northern India around 1660. This can be proven with a letter from Delhi. It also states that only Christians drank arrack. However, to conclude from this that Indians did not drink alcohol (and thus also punch) does not seem to be permissible, because there are sources that report otherwise. In a footnote to this letter, which dates from 1891, it is noted that lemonade is usually made from limes and water and that for those who can afford it, there are various lemonades. Rose water and sugar were also added.
In India, people traditionally drink lemonades, which are named differently. Citrus juice, water and sugar are mixed and various spices are added.
An Indian medicine book from the 4th century mentions a recipe of lemon juice, water, sugar and camphor. The latter belongs to the genus of cinnamon trees. From this source we may conclude that lemonades have been drunk in India for at least 1600 years. It may also be assumed that lemonade has a much longer tradition; both etymology and botany point to northern India as its origin. Lemonade must therefore be regarded as a North Indian invention, which then spread to the rest of the world together with citrus fruits. It may be that the Romans already drank lemonade, but it originated in India.
Rose water is also mentioned as a possible ingredient in the footnote above. “A great deal of lemonade and rose water with rock candy” was also drunk in Persia around 1700. Rose water is a Persian invention and reached India from there, certainly transported by the Mughals, and was then also drunk there.
Lemonade was not only made with water. There is a travel report from the 1680s according to which an arrack was distilled from palm wine in Indonesia, which was then processed with water, sugar and lemon juice into a lemonade that was called massack and burabols there. This was known to the English as punch.
One essential point is certainly that one should make a “real” punch with a water-diluted distillate. But in Europe, too, wine was used instead. Mankind has always been fond of alcohol, and so one is certainly not mistaken in assuming that a clever mind used not water but a slightly alcoholic palm wine to prepare a lemonade, long before distillation was known. That this was done is proved by a travelogue published in 1700: “Our liquid was suri, a juice obtained from the coconut palms; with this we made a very good massak and lemonade, with the help of sugar, spices, lemons and oranges”.
Distillation of alcohol
There is another argument in favor of punch as an Indian invention. Not only lemonade originated there. India and Central Asia are equally crucial to the early history of distillation. There are many archaeological finds and ancient texts that suggest the Indian subcontinent was one of the earliest centers of distillation.[19-378]
From the Pacific, sugar cane spread to India and China. [19-700] The earliest evidence of the production of alcoholic beverages from sugar cane is found in India. [19-130][19-700]
The most substantial evidence of ancient distillation comes from Gandhāra, an ancient region around the city of Peshawar on the upper reaches of the Indus River, which today forms the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. [19-224][19-600][21] There, clay stills, condensers, storage vessels, and drinking cups were found. These finds suggest that distillation of alcohol was known and used in northern India from the fifth century B.C. onward. [19-224][19-259] There are also archaeological findings as far down as Mysore in southern India. These date from between 100 B.C. And 200 A.D. [19-378] Distillation was also known in China. This conclusion can be drawn from two bronze stills that date from the Eastern Han Dynasty. This existed between the years 25 and 220. [19-53]
Nearchos, Alexander the Great’s companion and commander-in-chief of the fleet, confirms the use of sugar cane during the Indian campaign in 325 BC when he reports: “A reed in India brings forth honey without the help of bees, from which an intoxicating drink is mademthough the plant bears no fruit.” [19-700][34][35-132][36]
In Gandhāra and northern India, people also knew how to extract sugar from sugar cane. [19-224][19-600][19-668]
There are numerous other references from ancient India: The Laws of Manu, written between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. For example, restrict the consumption of alcohol by Hindus, including non-alcoholic beverages made from sugar cane. [19-700][22] The Arthashastra, a state law textbook of ancient India, written between the second B.C. and third A.D. centuries, describes fermented sugar drinks [19-700][25][26] and states: »householders should be free to manufacture white liquor on festive occasions« [19-378] In the Samhita of the Indian physician Charaka, the centerpiece of traditional Ayurvedic literature, probably written in the first century, sugar is mentioned as one of the nine sources of wine. [19-700][27]
Combining the findings of archaeological evidence and various Ayurvedic texts, one may surmise that the ancient Vedic term surā – normally understood to mean a fermented beverage – actually refers to distilled alcohol. [19-224][19-378]
In the seventh century, the Chinese Buddhist traveler Xuanzang reported that the people of the Indus drank sugarcane distillates, [19-224] confirming the statements of General Narchus. Yeh-lü Ch’u-ts’ai, a high official of the Mongolian state at the time of Genghis Khan in the early 13th century, also wrote on his travels to the Indus Valley that sugarcane was grown there and that the people there made wine from it. [19-700]
Alcohol was not fundamentally forbidden in Islam. Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages other than wine was permitted, since the Koran did not expressly forbid it. [19-464] This explains why alcohol was also distilled and consumed in the Mughal Empire.
According to the Indian historian Ziauddin Barani, who died in 1358, arrack distilled from sugar was traded supraregionally in the Delhi Sultanate at the turn of the 14th century until Sultan Ala ud-Din Khalji, who was Sultan of Delhi from 1297 to 1316, banned distillation by decree. However, he later had to revoke this ban. [19-35][19-121][19-224][19-378][19-600][23] From the administrative report of the scholar Abū ‘l-Fazl Allāmī, called Āʾīn-i Akbarī, for the Mughal ruler Akbar, who was Great Mughal of India from 1556 to 1605, details of production are evident: The distillate was made from sugarcane juice, with or without the addition of sugar; spices and other botanicals were often added; it was also distilled several times. [19-600][20][24]
When European colonists reached the Indian subcontinent in the late 15th century, distilled alcohol was ubiquitous, and Europeans adopted local drinking habits. [19-224][19-378]
When the Portuguese established their colony in Goa in 1510, they discovered that arrack made from palm sap was being produced, drunk and traded throughout eastern and southern India. The name comes from Arabic and means something like brandy. Traditionally, this arrack is made by climbing mature coconut palms, then cutting the stems where the tree’s flowers grow and collecting the sap as it runs out. This sap ferments rapidly with yeasts stemming from the environment and produces a palm wine, or “toddy” as it is called, with about 8 percent alcohol content, which must be distilled within twenty-four hours before it turns sour.[19-39] The earliest references to such palm arrack date to the year 900, when Abu Zeyd Hassan, a chronicler from Basra, recorded an Arab navigator’s reference to a drink from Sri Lanka made from “palm honey, boiled.”[19-39]
Further evidence
We have found further evidence to support the above. Jürgen Andersen writes in 1644 that people in Batavia drank punch and other alcoholic drinks or soups. [3-10]Johann Jacob Saar reports something comparable from Ceylon in 1650 and additionally notes that punch was a common drink not only throughout India but also in Persia. [4-59][4-60] This is confirmed by Erasmus Francisci in 1670 for India. [5-859]
In our opinion, these findings sufficiently prove that the blueprint for a punch may have been laid down in European recipes, but that the punch itself is of Indian origin. One prepared a lemonade with palm wine or diluted arrack, and the punch was ready.
Hannah Wooley: The queen-like closet. 1670, #CCLII. [37-CCLII]
That a punch is nothing other than an alcoholic lemonade is also suggested by a recipe by Hannah Woolley from 1670. In ‘The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet’ she writes: “To make Limonado. Take one Quart of Sack, half a Pint of Brandy, half a Pint of fair Water, the Juice of two Limons, and some of the Pill, so brew them together, with Sugar and drink it.« [37-CCLII]
This recipe describes nothing other than a kind of wine punch, but is nevertheless called lemonade by her.
However, there were also other lemonades that were called ‘Limonade a l’Angloise’, i.e. ‘English-style lemonade’ or ‘English lemonade’. Jean Baptiste Labat reported on this in 1694 in his book ‘New Voyage to the American Islands’: “The English … have invented two or three kinds of spirits … . The first is called Sang-gris … . The second is the English-style lemonade. It is made from Canarian wine to which sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a little amber essence are added. This drink is as delicious as it is dangerous. … The third drink of the English is the ponche, their favourite; … .” [38-135][38-136]
Anonymus (Jean Baptiste Labat): Nouveau voyage aux isles de l’Amerique. 1724, page 135-136. [38-135][38-136]
– »Les Anglois en consomment aussi beaucoup, & ne sont pas plus délicats que les Espagnols; ils ont inventé deux ou trois sortes de liqueurs, dont l’usage & l’abus sont passez chez nos François, toûjours très-ardens imitateurs de ce qu’ils voyent de mauvais chez nos Voisins. La premiere s’appelle Sang-gris; … . La seconde est la Limonade à l’Angloise. Elle se fait avec du vin de Canarie, dans lequel on met du sucre, du jus de citron, de la canelle, de la muscade, du gérofle & un peu d’essence d’ambre. Cette boisson est aussi délicieuse qu’elle est dangereuse. … La troisiéme boisson des Anglois est la Ponche, c’est leur boisson favorite; … .« [38-135][38-136]
We report on this in detail in the article on Sangaree. So the ‘English lemonade’ is also nothing other than a wine punch, just like the Sangaree, which Jean Baptiste Labat calls ‘Sang-gris’. This is another indication that the origin of the punch is to be found in lemonade. In India, lemonade was also made with palm wine or arrack. It is therefore probable that the English also adopted this custom and used a grape wine instead of palm wine; ready was the ‘English lemonade’.
Such an ‘English lemonade’ is also mentioned in other publications, for example in 1742 in the ‘Dictionnaire universel de commerce’. [39-1054] This reference in the ‘Allgemeine Schatz-Kammer der Kauffmannschafft’, also published in 1742, is particularly interesting: “LIMONADE A L’ANGLOISE, this potion is prepared like the Sanggris, except that to the lemonade is added Canary sack, and to the Sanggris wine of Madera.” [40-1400]
– »LIMONADE A L’ANGLOISE, dieser Tranck wird wie der Sanggris zubereitet, ausser daß zur Limonade Canarien-Sect, und zum Sanggris Wein von Madera kommt.« [40-1400]
So here again, a reference is made to lemonade as the basis of the drink.
At the beginning of the 1680s, the physician Christoph Frike, who was born in Ulm in 1659 and worked for the Dutch East India Company, wrote: [42] “From the arac mentioned one then also prepares various savoury massac and burabols, so soon resembling the cold bowls and lemons, by mixing the same with sugar, lemon-water and wine.” [41-58]
Christoph Frick: Christoph Frikens Ost-Indianische Räysen und Kriegs-Dienste. 1692, page 58. [41-58]
– »Auß ermeltem Arac bereitet man so dann auch verschiedene herzliche Massac und Burabols, so bald denen kalten Schahlen und Lemonat gleichen / indeme man selben mit Zucker / Lemonien-Wasser und Wein vermenget.« [41-58]
Even though he does not use the term ‘punch’, but rather massac and burabols, his recipe is still basically the same as a punch. The essence of his description is that he writes that these mixtures resemble ‘Lemonat’, by which he must surely have meant lemonade. So for him, too, such alcoholic drinks are lemonade containing alcohol.
E. P. (Edward Phillips): The new world of English words. 1658. [47-Punch]
The ‘Universal English Dictionary’ from 1658 also seems to point to the Indian origin of punch. It writes: “Punch, a kind of Indian drink.” [47-Punch]
It is called an ‘Indian drink’, not a drink invented by English people to drink in India.
The fifth ingredient: spices
But what about the spices? They absolutely belong in a punch if you want to prepare it true to the original. Traditionally, Indian lemonade is also prepared with spices. That is why a punch, i.e. an alcoholic Indian lemonade, also contains spices; just as John Fryer has let us know: Five ingredients belong in the “Paunch”: distillate, water, lemon, sugar, spice.
We can well imagine that in India the punch was not simply called punch, but that there was another addition to the name, which was not adopted and handed down by the English. This is supported by the fact that there are other Indian drinks and foodstuffs which all have such an addition:
Panch Phoron is a spice mixture of five ingredients; translated this mixture means: “five spices”. [6]
Panchamrita, translated as “five elixirs”, is a mixture of the five foodstuffs honey, palm sugar, Indian yoghurt, cow’s milk and ghee (a type of clarified butter). Instead of palm sugar, Indian basil (tulsi) is also used, or other ingredients from different regions are substituted. This elixir is also used as an offering. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] „For hundreds of years, Panchamrut … is being consumed throughout India, mostly on auspicious occasions, but also generally as a tonic for the maintenance of the human system. … I personally am convinced that the English Punch is a derivative of the Indian PunchAmrut. Both were created as a concoction for wellbeing. Just like a lot of other stuff, the Punch was also one of those Indian creations that reached the other parts of the globe through the British. (Indians could not travel under the British Raj) Unfortunately, a lot of evidence, research, formulae and journals in India was destroyed intentionally…First by the Indians to prevent it from getting into the hands of the British, and then by the British before they were forced to leave.“ [16]
Panchagavya, translated as “five descendants of the cow”, is a mixture that is also used in traditional Hindu rituals and consists of five ingredients, namely those coming directly from the cow: Cow dung, urine, milk; plus those from further processing, yoghurt and ghee. This mixture is fermented. It is also used in Ayurvedic medicine. [17]
Panchratna Dal, translated as “five jewels”, is a lentil dish from Rajasthan, a northern Indian state. It is prepared with five different types of lentils. It is usually served on special occasions. [18]
So one can well imagine that a normal Indian lemonade, consisting of four ingredients, in its alcoholic form, with alcohol as a fifth ingredient, was called something like the five-ingredient lemonade, as “Panch Something”, and the English adopted only the first part of the name.
The travels of Peter Mundy. Vol. II., page 28. 1914. [29-28]
This hypothesis can be historically corroborated. Peter Mundy, was from 1628 to 1630 an Indian trader in Surat, where the British factories were located. [28][19-563] He reports: “Our strong drinke is Racke, like strong water, next a kinde of beere made of Course Sugar and other ingredients, pleasant to the taste and wholesome, but many tymes water. There is sometimes a Composition of Racke, water, sugar and Juice of Lymes called Chareboockhra.” [29-28]
Racke is arrack, Course Sugar is jaggery, a traditionally unrefined sugar (cane sugar) used throughout South and Southeast Asia. [30]
Chareboockhra is a bastardized spelling of chār-bakhra [29-28], also spelled chaar bakhraa, [31] meaning ‘four parts.’ [29-28][31][32]
Now, if we imagine that spices would have been added in addition, would it not be logical to speak of ‘five parts’, of ‘paa.nch bakhraa’? [33]So it is quite possible that this ‘Something’ that the English omitted was the word ‘bakhraa’.
John Fryer: A new account of East-India and Persia, 1698, Seite 157. [43-157]
It is not unusual for a drink to be named after the number of its ingredients. John Fryer, for example, not only reports in his book about a journey that took place between 1672 and 1681 that punch was named after the number five, but also compares this with the language used by European doctors, who used the term diapente or diatesseron, since these consisted of four things: “At Nerule is made the best Arach or Nepa de Goa, with which the English on this Coast make that enervating Liquor called Paunch (which is Indostan for Five) from Five Ingredients; as the Physicians name their Composition Diapente; or from Four things, Diatesseron.” [43-157]
William Salmon: Pharmacopoeia Bateana. 1694, Seite 759. [44-759]
This is also the view of William Salmon in 1694 in the Pharmacopoeia Bateana, because he also understands diatesseron and punch to mean the same thing: “Diatessaron Potabile, The Julep of four Things. … This is in truth but a kind of small Punch … .” [44-759]
This way of naming has a long tradition: a theriac made from only four medicinal drugs was called ‘theriaca diatesseron’ according to the ‘Antidotarium Nicolai’ written around 1140. [45][46]
European Lemonade – An Echo of India
The Indian origin of lemonade can be seen in the first European recipes for lemonade: it was prepared with spices. We find it written down like this in the early French recipe books. For example, coriander, cinnamon, musk and ambergris are mentioned. Also, not only jasmine was used, but also orange, musk rose and clove blossoms. The roses are reminiscent of the rose water used in India. These ingredients were valuable and could be afforded at the court of Louis XIV. Poorer social classes had to do without them, and as early as 1659 a French recipe was published that did without these ingredients.
When one considers these contexts and reports, does one not inevitably come to the conclusion that the origin of punching must lie in India and that it must be an Indian invention? At any rate, we are convinced of this.
So far we have not gone into the traditional recipes for a punch in detail. This is the subject of the next article in this series. In it we will take a closer look at the first one hundred years of punch descriptions.
https://archive.org/details/earlyrecordsofbr00wheerich/page/20/mode/2up?q=punch J. Talboys Wheeler: Early records of British India: a history of the English settlements in India, as told in the government records, the works of old travellers and other contemporary documents, from the earliest period down to the rise of British power in India. London, 1878.
https://books.google.de/books?id=3TdZAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=j%C3%BCrgen+andersen+%22palepuntz%22&source=bl&ots=TAH1lQGPOK&sig=ACfU3U1EKsD1VVF5hvaw6Ot8Uf88V_vnsA&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHg-K5k5jsAhVQ6aQKHXY-DbEQ6AEwAXoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=j%C3%BCrgen%20andersen%20%22palepuntz%22&f=false Adam Olearius (Hrsg.): Orientalische Reise-Beschreibunge Jürgen Andersen aus Schleßwig der An. Christi 1644. außgezogen und 1650. wieder kommen. Und Volquard Iversen aus Holstein so An. 1655. außgezogen und 1668. wieder angelanget. Seynd beyde respective durch Ost Indien / Sina / Tartarien / Persien / Türckeyen / Arabien und Palestinam gezogen: und haben zu Wasser und Land viel merckliche Dinge gesehen und erfahren; Aus deren bericht mit lust auch verwunderung zu vernehmen die Beschaffenheit und heutiger Zustand der Insulen / festen Länder / Städte / der Einwohner Leben / Sitten und Lehre. Wie auchVon ihnen erlittenen erbärmlichen Schiffbrüchen. Heraus gegeben Durch Adam Olearium, der regierenden Fürstl. Durchl. zu Schleßwig / Holstein Bibliothecarium und Antiquarium. Mit dessen Notis, und etlicher Orter Erklärungen: Sampt vielen Kupferstücken. Schleßwig, 1669.
https://archive.org/details/nouveauvoyageaux00laba/page/n177/mode/2up?q=gris Anonymus (Jean Baptiste Labat): Nouveau voyage aux isles de l’Amerique. Contenant l’histoire naturelle de ces pays, l’origine, les mœurs, la religion & le gouvernement des habitans anciens & modernes: les guerres & les evenemens singuliers qui y sont arrivez pendant le long séjour que l’auteur y a fait: le commerce et les manufactures qui y sont établies, & les moyens de les augmenter. Ouvrage enrichi d’un grand nombre de cartes, plans, & figures en taille-douce. Tome premier. Paris 1724.
https://books.google.de/books?id=j4vGWWL61NcC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Christoph Frick: Chriſtoph Frikens Ost-Indianische Räysen und Kriegs-Dienste / Oder eine Außführliche Beschreibung was sich Zeit solcher / nemlich von A. 1680 biß A. 1685. so zur See / als zu Land / in offentlichen Treffen und Scharmüzeln / in Belagerungen / Stürmen und Eroberungen der Haydnischen Plätze und Städte / in Marchiren und Quartieren / mit ihme und seinen beygefuügten Cameraden hin und wieder begeben / Da dann insonderheit der Bantamische Krieg auf Groß-Java von Anfang biß zu Ende warhafftig vorgestellet und entworffen / Wie nicht weniger Verschiedene Außländische Völker / Thiere und Gewächse / dem Geneigten Leser zu annehmlicher Belustigung / vorgestellet und beschrieben worden. Ulm, 1692.
An English invention?
Charles Bridges Mount suggested that punch was an English invention. [1-401] [1-402] J. Taalboys Wheeler opined in 1878: “It is a curious fact, not generally known, that punch was an Indian drink invented by the convivial [note: English] Factors at Surat.” [2-21]
He also attributes the invention to the English. The chain of evidence for the English origin of the punch compiled by Charles Bridges Mount and David Wondrich and supplemented by us is as follows: [19]
This chain of evidence is conclusive. It suggests that the recipe of a punch was already known in the Anglo-European tradition and therefore the sailors would have followed these recipes in India by simply using brandy with water instead of wine, and that is how the punch was created. In support of this thesis, it is also said that there are no Indian sources in which punch is described. So everything is clear, isn’t it? Unfortunately not.
An Indian invention!
We are of the opinion that Punch is an Indian invention. The chain of evidence compiled by Charles Bridges Mount and David Wondrich is quite correct in its compilation of facts, but the conclusions drawn from it are not.
There is evidence and weighty indications that make it seem more credible that punch is an Indian invention and that John Fryer was not fooled with his etymological derivation.
The origin of lemonade
We have already talked about some of the arguments in our post on the true origin of lemonade. Since we refer to the analyses made there in this chapter, the detailed source references are missing here, because they can be found there. We merely summarise them here and refer to the lemonade article for a detailed look. In addition, there is further evidence that speaks for an Indian origin of the punch. We will go into these in more detail afterwards.
In the article on lemonade we had stated:
Distillation of alcohol
There is another argument in favor of punch as an Indian invention. Not only lemonade originated there. India and Central Asia are equally crucial to the early history of distillation. There are many archaeological finds and ancient texts that suggest the Indian subcontinent was one of the earliest centers of distillation.[19-378]
From the Pacific, sugar cane spread to India and China. [19-700] The earliest evidence of the production of alcoholic beverages from sugar cane is found in India. [19-130] [19-700]
The most substantial evidence of ancient distillation comes from Gandhāra, an ancient region around the city of Peshawar on the upper reaches of the Indus River, which today forms the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. [19-224] [19-600] [21] There, clay stills, condensers, storage vessels, and drinking cups were found. These finds suggest that distillation of alcohol was known and used in northern India from the fifth century B.C. onward. [19-224] [19-259] There are also archaeological findings as far down as Mysore in southern India. These date from between 100 B.C. And 200 A.D. [19-378] Distillation was also known in China. This conclusion can be drawn from two bronze stills that date from the Eastern Han Dynasty. This existed between the years 25 and 220. [19-53]
Nearchos, Alexander the Great’s companion and commander-in-chief of the fleet, confirms the use of sugar cane during the Indian campaign in 325 BC when he reports: “A reed in India brings forth honey without the help of bees, from which an intoxicating drink is mademthough the plant bears no fruit.” [19-700] [34] [35-132] [36]
In Gandhāra and northern India, people also knew how to extract sugar from sugar cane. [19-224] [19-600] [19-668]
There are numerous other references from ancient India: The Laws of Manu, written between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. For example, restrict the consumption of alcohol by Hindus, including non-alcoholic beverages made from sugar cane. [19-700] [22] The Arthashastra, a state law textbook of ancient India, written between the second B.C. and third A.D. centuries, describes fermented sugar drinks [19-700] [25] [26] and states: »householders should be free to manufacture white liquor on festive occasions« [19-378] In the Samhita of the Indian physician Charaka, the centerpiece of traditional Ayurvedic literature, probably written in the first century, sugar is mentioned as one of the nine sources of wine. [19-700] [27]
Combining the findings of archaeological evidence and various Ayurvedic texts, one may surmise that the ancient Vedic term surā – normally understood to mean a fermented beverage – actually refers to distilled alcohol. [19-224] [19-378]
In the seventh century, the Chinese Buddhist traveler Xuanzang reported that the people of the Indus drank sugarcane distillates, [19-224] confirming the statements of General Narchus. Yeh-lü Ch’u-ts’ai, a high official of the Mongolian state at the time of Genghis Khan in the early 13th century, also wrote on his travels to the Indus Valley that sugarcane was grown there and that the people there made wine from it. [19-700]
Alcohol was not fundamentally forbidden in Islam. Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages other than wine was permitted, since the Koran did not expressly forbid it. [19-464] This explains why alcohol was also distilled and consumed in the Mughal Empire.
According to the Indian historian Ziauddin Barani, who died in 1358, arrack distilled from sugar was traded supraregionally in the Delhi Sultanate at the turn of the 14th century until Sultan Ala ud-Din Khalji, who was Sultan of Delhi from 1297 to 1316, banned distillation by decree. However, he later had to revoke this ban. [19-35] [19-121] [19-224] [19-378] [19-600] [23] From the administrative report of the scholar Abū ‘l-Fazl Allāmī, called Āʾīn-i Akbarī, for the Mughal ruler Akbar, who was Great Mughal of India from 1556 to 1605, details of production are evident: The distillate was made from sugarcane juice, with or without the addition of sugar; spices and other botanicals were often added; it was also distilled several times. [19-600] [20] [24]
When European colonists reached the Indian subcontinent in the late 15th century, distilled alcohol was ubiquitous, and Europeans adopted local drinking habits. [19-224] [19-378]
When the Portuguese established their colony in Goa in 1510, they discovered that arrack made from palm sap was being produced, drunk and traded throughout eastern and southern India. The name comes from Arabic and means something like brandy. Traditionally, this arrack is made by climbing mature coconut palms, then cutting the stems where the tree’s flowers grow and collecting the sap as it runs out. This sap ferments rapidly with yeasts stemming from the environment and produces a palm wine, or “toddy” as it is called, with about 8 percent alcohol content, which must be distilled within twenty-four hours before it turns sour.[19-39] The earliest references to such palm arrack date to the year 900, when Abu Zeyd Hassan, a chronicler from Basra, recorded an Arab navigator’s reference to a drink from Sri Lanka made from “palm honey, boiled.” [19-39]
Further evidence
We have found further evidence to support the above. Jürgen Andersen writes in 1644 that people in Batavia drank punch and other alcoholic drinks or soups. [3-10] Johann Jacob Saar reports something comparable from Ceylon in 1650 and additionally notes that punch was a common drink not only throughout India but also in Persia. [4-59] [4-60] This is confirmed by Erasmus Francisci in 1670 for India. [5-859]
In our opinion, these findings sufficiently prove that the blueprint for a punch may have been laid down in European recipes, but that the punch itself is of Indian origin. One prepared a lemonade with palm wine or diluted arrack, and the punch was ready.
That a punch is nothing other than an alcoholic lemonade is also suggested by a recipe by Hannah Woolley from 1670. In ‘The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet’ she writes: “To make Limonado. Take one Quart of Sack, half a Pint of Brandy, half a Pint of fair Water, the Juice of two Limons, and some of the Pill, so brew them together, with Sugar and drink it.« [37-CCLII]
This recipe describes nothing other than a kind of wine punch, but is nevertheless called lemonade by her.
However, there were also other lemonades that were called ‘Limonade a l’Angloise’, i.e. ‘English-style lemonade’ or ‘English lemonade’. Jean Baptiste Labat reported on this in 1694 in his book ‘New Voyage to the American Islands’: “The English … have invented two or three kinds of spirits … . The first is called Sang-gris … . The second is the English-style lemonade. It is made from Canarian wine to which sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a little amber essence are added. This drink is as delicious as it is dangerous. … The third drink of the English is the ponche, their favourite; … .” [38-135] [38-136]
– »Les Anglois en consomment aussi beaucoup, & ne sont pas plus délicats que les Espagnols; ils ont inventé deux ou trois sortes de liqueurs, dont l’usage & l’abus sont passez chez nos François, toûjours très-ardens imitateurs de ce qu’ils voyent de mauvais chez nos Voisins. La premiere s’appelle Sang-gris; … . La seconde est la Limonade à l’Angloise. Elle se fait avec du vin de Canarie, dans lequel on met du sucre, du jus de citron, de la canelle, de la muscade, du gérofle & un peu d’essence d’ambre. Cette boisson est aussi délicieuse qu’elle est dangereuse. … La troisiéme boisson des Anglois est la Ponche, c’est leur boisson favorite; … .« [38-135] [38-136]
We report on this in detail in the article on Sangaree. So the ‘English lemonade’ is also nothing other than a wine punch, just like the Sangaree, which Jean Baptiste Labat calls ‘Sang-gris’. This is another indication that the origin of the punch is to be found in lemonade. In India, lemonade was also made with palm wine or arrack. It is therefore probable that the English also adopted this custom and used a grape wine instead of palm wine; ready was the ‘English lemonade’.
Such an ‘English lemonade’ is also mentioned in other publications, for example in 1742 in the ‘Dictionnaire universel de commerce’. [39-1054] This reference in the ‘Allgemeine Schatz-Kammer der Kauffmannschafft’, also published in 1742, is particularly interesting: “LIMONADE A L’ANGLOISE, this potion is prepared like the Sanggris, except that to the lemonade is added Canary sack, and to the Sanggris wine of Madera.” [40-1400]
– »LIMONADE A L’ANGLOISE, dieser Tranck wird wie der Sanggris zubereitet, ausser daß zur Limonade Canarien-Sect, und zum Sanggris Wein von Madera kommt.« [40-1400]
So here again, a reference is made to lemonade as the basis of the drink.
At the beginning of the 1680s, the physician Christoph Frike, who was born in Ulm in 1659 and worked for the Dutch East India Company, wrote: [42] “From the arac mentioned one then also prepares various savoury massac and burabols, so soon resembling the cold bowls and lemons, by mixing the same with sugar, lemon-water and wine.” [41-58]
– »Auß ermeltem Arac bereitet man so dann auch verschiedene herzliche Massac und Burabols, so bald denen kalten Schahlen und Lemonat gleichen / indeme man selben mit Zucker / Lemonien-Wasser und Wein vermenget.« [41-58]
Even though he does not use the term ‘punch’, but rather massac and burabols, his recipe is still basically the same as a punch. The essence of his description is that he writes that these mixtures resemble ‘Lemonat’, by which he must surely have meant lemonade. So for him, too, such alcoholic drinks are lemonade containing alcohol.
The ‘Universal English Dictionary’ from 1658 also seems to point to the Indian origin of punch. It writes: “Punch, a kind of Indian drink.” [47-Punch]
It is called an ‘Indian drink’, not a drink invented by English people to drink in India.
The fifth ingredient: spices
But what about the spices? They absolutely belong in a punch if you want to prepare it true to the original. Traditionally, Indian lemonade is also prepared with spices. That is why a punch, i.e. an alcoholic Indian lemonade, also contains spices; just as John Fryer has let us know: Five ingredients belong in the “Paunch”: distillate, water, lemon, sugar, spice.
We can well imagine that in India the punch was not simply called punch, but that there was another addition to the name, which was not adopted and handed down by the English. This is supported by the fact that there are other Indian drinks and foodstuffs which all have such an addition:
Panch Phoron is a spice mixture of five ingredients; translated this mixture means: “five spices”. [6]
Panchamrita, translated as “five elixirs”, is a mixture of the five foodstuffs honey, palm sugar, Indian yoghurt, cow’s milk and ghee (a type of clarified butter). Instead of palm sugar, Indian basil (tulsi) is also used, or other ingredients from different regions are substituted. This elixir is also used as an offering. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] „For hundreds of years, Panchamrut … is being consumed throughout India, mostly on auspicious occasions, but also generally as a tonic for the maintenance of the human system. … I personally am convinced that the English Punch is a derivative of the Indian PunchAmrut. Both were created as a concoction for wellbeing. Just like a lot of other stuff, the Punch was also one of those Indian creations that reached the other parts of the globe through the British. (Indians could not travel under the British Raj) Unfortunately, a lot of evidence, research, formulae and journals in India was destroyed intentionally…First by the Indians to prevent it from getting into the hands of the British, and then by the British before they were forced to leave.“ [16]
Panchagavya, translated as “five descendants of the cow”, is a mixture that is also used in traditional Hindu rituals and consists of five ingredients, namely those coming directly from the cow: Cow dung, urine, milk; plus those from further processing, yoghurt and ghee. This mixture is fermented. It is also used in Ayurvedic medicine. [17]
Panchratna Dal, translated as “five jewels”, is a lentil dish from Rajasthan, a northern Indian state. It is prepared with five different types of lentils. It is usually served on special occasions. [18]
So one can well imagine that a normal Indian lemonade, consisting of four ingredients, in its alcoholic form, with alcohol as a fifth ingredient, was called something like the five-ingredient lemonade, as “Panch Something”, and the English adopted only the first part of the name.
This hypothesis can be historically corroborated. Peter Mundy, was from 1628 to 1630 an Indian trader in Surat, where the British factories were located. [28] [19-563] He reports: “Our strong drinke is Racke, like strong water, next a kinde of beere made of Course Sugar and other ingredients, pleasant to the taste and wholesome, but many tymes water. There is sometimes a Composition of Racke, water, sugar and Juice of Lymes called Chareboockhra.” [29-28]
Racke is arrack, Course Sugar is jaggery, a traditionally unrefined sugar (cane sugar) used throughout South and Southeast Asia. [30]
Chareboockhra is a bastardized spelling of chār-bakhra [29-28], also spelled chaar bakhraa, [31] meaning ‘four parts.’ [29-28] [31] [32]
Now, if we imagine that spices would have been added in addition, would it not be logical to speak of ‘five parts’, of ‘paa.nch bakhraa’? [33] So it is quite possible that this ‘Something’ that the English omitted was the word ‘bakhraa’.
It is not unusual for a drink to be named after the number of its ingredients. John Fryer, for example, not only reports in his book about a journey that took place between 1672 and 1681 that punch was named after the number five, but also compares this with the language used by European doctors, who used the term diapente or diatesseron, since these consisted of four things: “At Nerule is made the best Arach or Nepa de Goa, with which the English on this Coast make that enervating Liquor called Paunch (which is Indostan for Five) from Five Ingredients; as the Physicians name their Composition Diapente; or from Four things, Diatesseron.” [43-157]
This is also the view of William Salmon in 1694 in the Pharmacopoeia Bateana, because he also understands diatesseron and punch to mean the same thing: “Diatessaron Potabile, The Julep of four Things. … This is in truth but a kind of small Punch … .” [44-759]
This way of naming has a long tradition: a theriac made from only four medicinal drugs was called ‘theriaca diatesseron’ according to the ‘Antidotarium Nicolai’ written around 1140. [45] [46]
European Lemonade – An Echo of India
The Indian origin of lemonade can be seen in the first European recipes for lemonade: it was prepared with spices. We find it written down like this in the early French recipe books. For example, coriander, cinnamon, musk and ambergris are mentioned. Also, not only jasmine was used, but also orange, musk rose and clove blossoms. The roses are reminiscent of the rose water used in India. These ingredients were valuable and could be afforded at the court of Louis XIV. Poorer social classes had to do without them, and as early as 1659 a French recipe was published that did without these ingredients.
When one considers these contexts and reports, does one not inevitably come to the conclusion that the origin of punching must lie in India and that it must be an Indian invention? At any rate, we are convinced of this.
So far we have not gone into the traditional recipes for a punch in detail. This is the subject of the next article in this series. In it we will take a closer look at the first one hundred years of punch descriptions.
Sources
Alexander Kinloch Forbes: Râs-mâlâ; Hindoo anals of the Province of Goozerat, in Western India. Vol-2. London, 1856.
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