Porivilangaya, the mystery sweet

Visnuchitta goes to Dakshina Mathura

….and others carried arisalu and other sweets in a kavadi for the king,

Visnuchitta proceeded towards Mathura in great pomp and gaiety!

Out of affection, his devoted wife packed in a sack,

Porivilangayas …….

-           Krishnadevaraya’sAmuktamalyada

Krishnadevaraya must have been a hardcore foodie. Not only did he write extensive grants to Tirupati temple for various prasadams, he writes many a culinary details in his epic ‘Amuktamalyada’. One of the interesting references therein is a porivilangaya. As interesting as the item mentioned is the debate it gets into while being translated from the original Telugu text to English.

Srinivas Sistla who has translated the text into English in his introduction talks a little about the confusion over the word  porivilangaya which is identified as a Tamil word, and on the other explained as wood apple.

Luckily for the translator Sistla the confusion was resolved when author and Vaishnava scholar Dr.Prema Nandakumar explained during a lecture that porivilangaya is ‘a sweet item prepared by mixing roasted green gram flour in boiling jaggery’. Yet, he decided to first translate it as ‘ripe wood-apples’ and later leave it as just ‘porivilangaya’.

Like Dr.Nandakumar, there would be no confusion in the minds of Tamilians or about what the great king Krishnadevaraya would have meant when he wrote Visnuchitta of SriVilliputhur packing up a few goodies while leaving for Dakshina Mathura or the Pandyan capital of Madurai. Krishnadevaraya gives detailed descriptions of food Vishnuchitta or Periyazhwar as he is famously known served, many of the prasadams offered and the Pandyan landscape. He also makes a clear distinction saying arisalu (ariselu in Telugu or adhirasam in Tamil, is akin to anarasa) and other sweets were being carried for the king, and Periyazhwar’s wife packing porivilangaya for him.

It was a practice among the Tamil Vaishnavas who went on a pilgrimage to pack these hardy and long lasting sweet and this practice lasted much in to 50-60s of last century. Since cooking along the route may not be possible a porivilangaya urundai (porul vilanga urundai sometimes it is called –porul vilanga meaning one whose meaning can’t be understood) would be filling and energetic option. Sometimes making urundais (laddu shaped) may be difficult and just the powder that goes into making porivilangaya was carried, that can be mixed in hot water or milk and consumed. There are still a few families who follow the Vaidika way of life who would not eat food cooked by anyone else or outside food. They continue to pack the sathu maavu (the flour) or the porivilangaya urundai.

Porivilangaya urundai in modern times is a rare sweet preparation as it is a bit tricky and also it gets harder as days go by and needs an implement to break up to be eaten. It really poses a danger to the dental faculties.

But, if you love jaggery sweets, and want to consume a sweet without feeling being so guilty porivilangai is one. Many years after my grandmothers who used to make them passed away, I attempted to make them taking the recipe from my mother. She was a bit skeptical, but the end result wasn’t that bad.

I am no chef and can’t give proportions like they do, also I can’t claim this as “the” authentic recipe. I have realized over years, every item changes from one to the other, and it can only be as authentic as it can.

Dry roast a cup of parboiled rice or puzhungal arisi, few spoons of green gram, channa dal separately and let them cool. Dry roast peanuts, remove the outer cover and keep it aside.

Add a few elaichis and grind the roasted rice, dals in a mixer to fine power, but not too fine. Add the roasted peanuts to the flour and keep it ready.

In a thick bottomed vessel take half a cup of crushed or powdered jaggery, add enough water and let it boil. You need to get the syrup or chaashni to thick consistency and one needs to keep checking it by either dropping it in water till it doesn’t dissolve or check it at finger tips. Once it is ready, pour the syrup on to the powder, mix it till you feel it is enough to make the urundais or laddoos. Smear your hands with a little rice flour, pick up the mixture and start making laddoos. Once they cool store them in a clean container and it would last easily for a month. If you like the flavor of ghee, add a spoon in the syrup.