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Title: WOMEN’S FOOD-WORLD THROUGH EXPLORATION OF SAADH IN THE MANGAL KAVYAS
Authors: Suhasini Roy
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Suhasini Roy Assistant Professor, Department of History, Shibpur Dinobundhoo Institution (College), West Bengal, India
MLA 8 Roy, Suhasini. "WOMEN’S FOOD-WORLD THROUGH EXPLORATION OF SAADH IN THE MANGAL KAVYAS." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 3, no. 12, Dec. 2018, pp. 7730-7737, ijsser.org/more2018.php?id=571. Accessed Dec. 2018. APA 6 Roy, S. (2018, December). WOMEN’S FOOD-WORLD THROUGH EXPLORATION OF SAADH IN THE MANGAL KAVYAS. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 3(12), 7730-7737. Retrieved from ijsser.org/more2018.php?id=571 Chicago Roy, Suhasini. "WOMEN’S FOOD-WORLD THROUGH EXPLORATION OF SAADH IN THE MANGAL KAVYAS." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 3, no. 12 (December 2018), 7730-7737. Accessed December, 2018. ijsser.org/more2018.php?id=571.
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Abstract: The saadh or saadh-bhakshan tracts in the Bengali Mangal Kavya literature from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries describe a pregnant women’s platter on her saadh (pre-child birth ritual). In saadh ritual a woman, usually in a matured stage of her pregnancy, expresses the food cravings she feels. Her associates then go on to prepare a platter containing her desired food as well as other delicacies. The pregnant lady is indulged with the food and well wishes in the auspicious celebration of the impending child-birth. The saadh verses describe at various length the food and flavours women enjoy in pregnancy, the dishes they like to offer/feed themselves, the recipes they follow while cooking for a fellow woman, and the raw foods they share amongst themselves or collect from the surroundings for cooking. I intend to analyze how the popular character of Mangal Kavya as a literary genre entails the narrativization of a food-scape that particularly belongs to the women. I evaluate the culture of women’s food in pre-modern Bengal by juxtaposing the saadh tracts with other narratives of food from the same texts that describe dishes prepared for the husbands and other males of the clan. This paper proposes a nuanced understanding of the Bengali food-culture by engaging with its pre-modern evolution and focusing on the gendered elements that were distinctly present in the cuisine that took shape during the medieval centuries.

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