what to bring to india in the summer

Every year effectually April, the Great Indian Summer arrives, and the country gradually transforms into a furnace. The gentle morning sunshine of winter is replaced with a sweltering heat that sends thirsty street dogs scurrying for shade, their tongues lolling.

In such times, a cooling sherbet is almost like manna from heaven. A refresher once common in Indian homes is the khus sherbet, made from the vetiver grass leaves (Chrysopogon zizanioides).

I of nature's best coolants, the leaves of khus, or vetiver, bring downwardly body estrus and are packed with natural antioxidants that reduce inflammation in the body. Every bit for the roots, the essential oil extracted from them via steam distillation is an important base ingredient in perfumery.

Long before Zara and Dior used vetiver in their luxury perfumes, Indians had been using this aromatic grass in their everyday life.

According to historical records, India has been exporting vetiver for thousands of years.

Excerpts from 'Periplus of the Erythraean Ocean', a first-century travel tome written by a Greek navigator, reveal that Bharat shipped vetiver in big quantities. Ancient Sangam literature, written more than than ii,000 years ago, also mentions vetiver equally an 'omaligai' ingredient used to heighten the bathing experience.

In medieval Bharat, the Mughals set up a department dedicated solely to developing scents for luxury and culinary purposes. Under their royal patronage, the ancient city of Kannauj emerged as India'due south perfume capital — built atop the rich alluvial alluvion plains of river Ganga, the town was particularly suited to cultivating perfumery essentials such every bit rose, jasmine and vetiver.

Ever since, Kannauj has been concocting all sorts of evocative attars from vetiver, including the world-famous 'Mitti attar' that captures the exquisite aroma of raindrops quenching parched soil. Read more about it here.

Kannauj's vetiver 'ruh' is today prized in the world of international perfume business and is the base for iconic perfumes like Armani'south 'Vetiver Babylone' and Tom Ford'south 'Grey Vetiver'. Interestingly, in her volume 'In The Scent Trail', artist-announcer Celia Lyttelton writes that "scientists have isolated 150 molecules from vetiver, and there are still more mysteries to be unearthed from its roots."

But vetiver's story in India goes beyond its earthy perfume. It has roots in something that many Indians volition discover very familiar — desert coolers.

Until the 1990s, air conditioners were too expensive. Evaporative desert coolers were the best protection that many centre-class families could wield against the summertime rut – perched precariously on stilts or window ledges.

These coolers were distinctive metal contraptions with vetiver mats fitted into their slatted sides, and in-built fans filled the air with a loud hum.

A office of the contraption was filled with water, drenching the vetiver mats. The hot air from outside would cool as it passed through the wet mats into the cage, and the fan would blow this cool, moist air into the room.

The relief brought by this sweet-smelling air is all-time summed up by these (translated) lines written by poet Bihari Lal Chaubey:

"Equally Vetiver blinds, that lend

To burning summer noons

The scented chill

Of winter nights."

Interestingly, Abul Fazl, in his book 'Ain-i-Akbari', says that it was the Mughal Emperor Akbar himself who first devised the concept of using khus mats equally cooling screens.

Nonetheless, it was during the colonial era that the idea went loftier-tech. The British dread of hot Indian summers led to the cosmos of thermantidotes, a rather complicated name for an early version of desert coolers, with a mitt-turned fan to drive air through mats of fragrant grass. These khus mats (or tatties, as they were called back then) were kept wet by a bhishtee, or a h2o carrier, engaged solely to sprinkle h2o on them.

Even today, homes in India'southward hinterland use khus in window screens and thatched roofs to keep the hot summertime current of air out. More recently, sandals, hats and fifty-fifty masks made from vetiver take started gaining traction in Indian markets.

The grass also holds immense cultural significance in India, from festivals to folk art forms. For instance, during the Sama Chakeva festival in Bihar's Mithila region, women come together to sing folk songs and make dolls from dried vetiver grass in a time-honoured tradition.

The people of Mithila also utilize vetiver stalks to brand 'Sikki' handicrafts, an aboriginal cottage manufacture that provides sustenance to many households. The antiquity of this folk art goes back 600 years to the days of the Maithili poet Vidyapati, who mentioned the plight of women stalk collectors in his poems.

And if all this was not enough, vetiver can help remedy severe cases of soil erosion. This is because vetiver is a tidy little constitute that holds the soil in place and stays. It produces no seeds, and its long, tough roots help create natural terraces without spreading outwards. And then it does not mix with the farmer's crop when planted as hedges on farm boundaries or river banks.

This concept was used in Fiji a few decades agone when astringent erosion endangered its sugarcane farms. After using vetiver, the land regained its health, erosion all but disappeared, and yields doubled. Today, the farmers of Fiji swear by this grass.

As the Vetiver Network International says, "If applied correctly, the Vetiver System could exist an of import tool to reduce erosion (past upwardly to xc%), reduce and conserve rainfall-runoff (past as much every bit lxx%), amend groundwater recharge, remove pollutants from water, reduce the take chances of flooding, and improve economic benefits to communities."

So the next time you are looking for an antidote to the estrus of Indian summers, render to the roots (literally) and try this multi-faceted 'wonder' grass!

Edited by Vinayak Hegde

churchillknoic1941.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.thebetterindia.com/264330/vetiver-wonder-grass-khus-sherbet-indian-summer-sikki-craft-traditional-knowledge/

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