Article ID: CBB544396048

Sīdhu (Śīdhu): The Sugar Cane “Wine” of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2020)

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This article considers the nature of one particular drink made from sugar cane called sīdhu (usually m., also śīdhu), exploring the evidence from textual sources. Other drinks were made with sugar cane products, such as āsavas, medicinal ariṣṭas, and the drink called maireya, but I will not consider those here.   As I argue, sīdhu was the basic fermented sugar cane drink, not strongly characterized by additives—“plain” sugar-wine as it were. Though in a manner typical of premodern Indic alcohol culture, even this one drink was a complex and variable affair. Rather than consider this drink in medical sources alone—important as that evidence may be—my methodology here is to examine the history of this drink in the light of a wide range of textual evidence, placing this drink in the broad context of pre-modern South Asian drinking culture.

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Authors & Contributors
Sasges, Gerard
Yifang Fang
Rzeznicka, Zofia
Kokoszko, Maciej
Federico Edoardo Perozziello
Califano, Salvatore
Concepts
Medicine and culture
Medicine
Alcohol
Fermentation
India, civilization and culture
Medicine and society
Time Periods
Ancient
Medieval
Early modern
Renaissance
Modern
20th century, early
Places
India
China
United States
Greece
Europe
Yangtze River
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