ABSTRACT

The Ni'matnama is a late fifteenth-century book of the recipes of the eccentric Sultan of Mandu (Madhya Pradesh), Ghiyath Shahi, collected and added to by his son and successor, Nasir Shah. It contains recipes for cooking a variety of delicacies and epicurean delights, as well as providing remedies and aphrodisiacs for the Sultan and his court. It also includes important sections on the preparation of betel leaves as well as advice on the logistics of hunting expeditions and warfare. The text provides a remarkable and tantalizing account of rarified courtly life in a fifteenth-century Indian Sultanate region.

chapter |77 pages

The Book of Delights

chapter |15 pages

Glossary

chapter |2 pages

Bibliography

chapter |16 pages

Index

chapter |1 pages

The miniatures

chapter |1 pages

Plate 7 Food preparation (f.11a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 8 Cooking meat (f.14a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 9 Soup being prepared (f.18a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 11 Rice being boiled (f.25b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 14 Soup being prepared (f.35b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 15 Congee being prepared (f.40b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 16 Bhāt being prepared (f.44b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 17 being prepared (f.51a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 22 Greens and potherbs (f.79b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 21 Soft food and sherbet (f.76a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 26 Betel preparation (f.94a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 27 Betel preparation (f.98a).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 28 Enjoyment of betel (f.100b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 32 Betel preparation (f.118b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 31 Preparation of halva (f.115b).

chapter |1 pages

Plate 35 Water cooling (f.129b).