Bhojanakutuhalam is an encyclopaedic book on various aspects of food from the perspective of Ayurveda, with English translation of the original Sanskrit text. It synthesises the 2,000-year old Ayurveda tradition with Food science.
The title of the great book literally means “curiosity about food”. Accordingly, the book provides exhaustive information about the different natural food elements and also the food products that are prepared by processing these elements. It also gives a detailed exposition of various aspects associated with consumption of food, water etc.
Even though Raghunatha Suri, the author, belongs to 17th century, he has compiled in a systematic manner all the information available about food, right from the ancient texts to the medieval texts that were available upto his time. Thus, it gives extensive information on the history of food science and technology of India for a period of 2,000 years.
The book also mentions many interesting aspects like proper usage of cosmetics, clothing etc. Therefore, it is a very prominent text from the point of view of the study of Indian culture and civilisation also. This work is most relevant today as it sheds ample light on our much degenerated food habits and stresses on the corrective measures one has to take to maintain proper physical and mental health.
It contains 40 colour pages in the beginning (with colour photos and text for easy understanding) and 20 colour pages at the end (with photos of 135 plant parts for identification). Postal address of the publisher: Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (I-AIM), Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), 74/2, Jarakabande Kaval, Post Attur, Via Yelahanka, Bangalore 560064