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Ingredients

The satvik pantry, one entry per canonical form: alt-names, kitchen use, and the ayurvedic view where it applies.

Ingredients

Amla

The sour, cooling gooseberry at the head of the rasāyana list; tridoshic, vitamin-C-rich and the anchor of both triphalā and chyawanprash.
Ingredients

Basmati Rice

The fragrant, long-grained rice the tradition classes among the finest grains; sweet, cooling, light and balancing to all.
Ingredients

Black Salt (Kala Namak)

Kala namak, the sulfurous Himalayan salt that seasons chaats, raitas and spiced buttermilk.
Ingredients

Cardamom

The queen of spices, sweet, gently warming green pods that settle the stomach, sweeten the breath and make milk and coffee easier to bear.
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Cashew

Kaju, the Brazilian nut India adopted; Tirupati's laddu keeps it, Puri's sanctum does not.
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Chana Dal

Split Bengal gram; the sweet, nutty pulse of kosambari, dalma pastes and vadas.
Ingredients

Coconut (Fresh Grated)

The fresh-scraped coconut of South Indian temple kitchens; sibling of copra, milk and oil.
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Coriander

The cooling seed of the coriander plant, the classic soother of burning digestion, acid rising and hot-weather irritability.
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Cumin

The everyday digestive seed, the tadka's backbone; that kindles agni without adding heat, making it safe even for pitta stomachs.
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Curry Leaves

Kadi patta, karuveppilai: the leaf that crackles into almost every South Indian tempering.
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Dates

The dense, sweet fruit of strength and rest; soaked, stuffed or blended into milk, the tradition's gentle energy and iron.
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Fennel

The after-meal seed of every Indian restaurant, sweet, cooling and famously settled of stomach; the gas-and-bloating herb that tastes like candy.
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Ghee

Clarified butter, the golden fat the texts place above all others: it carries herbs, kindles digestion without burning, and builds ojas.
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Ginger

The universal medicine, viśvabheṣaja; a warming rhizome that wakes up digestion, thaws cold limbs and settles travel sickness.
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Green Chili

Capsicum's post-1500 heat; the everyday green chili, which the archaic sanctum kitchens still decline.
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Hing (Asafoetida)

The pungent resin that lets satvik kitchens cook without onion and garlic.
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Holy Basil

The sacred basil of every courtyard, a satvik, clarifying herb for the breath, the chest and the household's morning ritual.
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Honey

The sweet that behaves like a medicine, drying, warming in action and kapha-scraping, with one famous rule: never heated.
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Jaggery

Unrefined cane sugar, gur; the sweetener of payasams, pongals and temple offerings.
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Kalkandu (Sugar Candy)

Rock-candy crystals, the gentle sweetening of kheers and prasadam mixes.
Ingredients

Mung Dal

The small split green gram the texts name the best of pulses, light, complete and gentle enough for the sick, the base of kitchari.
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Mustard Seeds

Rai, sarson, aavalu: the seeds that must crackle before anything else happens.
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Panch Phoron

The Bengali five-seed tempering: equal parts cumin, fennel, fenugreek, black mustard and nigella, always whole.
Ingredients

Potato

The Andean tuber India claimed; everywhere in home kitchens, barred from archaic sanctum canons.
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Rock Salt (Sendha Namak)

The fasting salt: sendha namak, saindhava lavana, mined and minimally processed, chosen for flavour as much as saltiness.
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Sabudana (Tapioca Pearls)

Cassava-starch pearls, the starch of the fasting kitchen.
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Salt

Everyday salt in the satvik kitchen, and the anchor of a three-salt pantry it shares with rock salt and black salt.
Ingredients

Sesame Oil

The king of oils, warming, penetrating and the classical medium for abhyaṅga, the daily self-massage.
Ingredients

Sonth (Dry Ginger)

Dried ginger powder; saunth in the North, sukku in the South; the warming shelf-stable form of ginger.
Ingredients

Spiced Buttermilk

Thin-churned yogurt water with roasted spices, the meal-ending drink of the tradition, praised for settling the gut and lifting heaviness.
Ingredients

Tamarind

Imli, puli: the sour backbone of temple rice dishes, sambars and gojjus.
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Tej Patta (Indian Bay Leaf)

Cinnamomum tamala, the tamal tree's leaf; what Indian cooking means by bay leaf — not Western bay laurel.
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Toor Dal

Arhar, split pigeon peas: the pulse of sambar and of the Jagannath temple's dalma.
Ingredients

Turmeric

The golden rhizome of every Indian kitchen, bitter, heating and blood-purifying, as much a medicine of the pot as of the pharmacy.