Rice, Rice lore, and the Rice Goddess Dewi Sri

India probably takes the credit for birthing the ultimate rice culture almost 10,000 years ago, according to researcher Tuk-Tuk Kumar author of the history of rice. A strain of wild rice found on the Himalayan slopes has also been documented 4000 years ago called Indica.  Extraordinary in yield, nutrition, resistance to disease, and of course, good taste, rice migrated around the globe over the years but India still claims the best rice -- the prized aromatic rice, Basmati. 

In those early days eating and religion were more than a Sunday dinner after church. Food and the preparation of food and the deities around food make up the fabric of culture and religion that was a part of everyday Indian Life. Hinduism's ancient scriptures have many references to rice. The Yajur Veda describes the preparation of rice cakes as a ritual offering. In the Atharva Veda, rice is described as "healing balms, the sons of heaven who never die." Smritis tell how Goddess Devi Lalithambika is known to be especially fond of payasa annam, sweet rice. Indeed, husked rice is always present in even the simplest Hindu puja as one of the offerings. So revered is rice that, if mixed with turmeric powder, it can substitute if necessary for costly items for the murthis such as dress, ornaments, even flowers. It's not a big leap from Rice the most fundamental food to rice the most potent symbol of auspiciousness and fertility. South Indians call rice Anna Lakshmi. Anna means "food" and Lakshmi is the Goddess of prosperity. From ancient times, Dhanya Lakshmi has been depicted holding a few sheaves of rice in her hand. The most special offering to Lord Ganesha is the modakam, a ball of sweet coconut/jiggery fill, covered with a thick rice paste. The first food fed a child is rice. In Rajasthan, when a woman first enters her husband's house, a measure of rice is kept on the threshold. This she scatters through her new home inviting prosperity and happiness. In South India, raw rice, mixed with kumkum to redden it, is known as mangala akshadai and showered over newlyweds. At a harvest festival, Thai Pongal, rice is ceremoniously cooked. Surya, God of the sun, is worshiped and the nature spirits are thanked. All this is about RICE!

But this reverence for rice is not restricted to India. The Angkabau of Sumatra use special rice plants to denote the Rice Mother, Indoea Padi. The people of Indochina treat ripened rice in bloom like a pregnant woman, capturing its spirit in a basket. Rice growers of the Malay Peninsula often treat the wife of the cultivator as a pregnant woman for the first three days after storing the rice. Even the Sundanese of West Java, who consider themselves Muslims, believe rice is the personification of the rice goddess Dewi Sri. In Thailand, when you call the family to a meal you say, "Eat rice." In Japan, to goad children to eat all their rice, grains are called "little Buddhas," and girls are told every grain they leave on the plate will become a pock mark on the face of their future husband. In China, the word for rice is the same as food. The Toradja tribes of Indonesia consider rice to be of heavenly origin. So hallowed was the grain, that it was taboo to plant any other crop in the rice fields. The Ahnishinabe Native American Indian tribe of North America say their ancestors saw in visions tracts of wild rice. Who started the tradition of throwing rice at wedding?

Dietetically, rice is cherished as a cholesterol-free, protein/calorie cornucopia. Most people in Asia obtain 60 to 80 percent of their calories from rice. Rice becomes a "complete protein," equivalent to beef protein, when eaten with beans or lentils because the enzymes in rice help to process the proteins in the lentil. As a result, rice is rarely served in India without some kind of lentil or dhal.