Biryani evokes varied reactions among people. Some love it, some could “die for it”, some debate and some research.

It is not enough just to partake of the delicately flavoured rice and meat but to understand its origins and etymology, its evolution and historicity, for only then does one savour the most ordered dish in India in its entirety.

Nilanjan Hajra, a culinary history researcher, helped a motley group of gourmands negotiate the heritage trail of biryani.

Titled “Mamsaudanam to Zer Biryan”, the talk organised by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), Calcutta, at Calcutta Rowing Club on December 29 traced the dish’s origins to the Mughal empire.

Hajra chased the story of biryani through lands, ancient texts and historical sources to arrive in 1606, when Jahangir was quashing son Khusrau Mirza’s rebellions after becoming the emperor the previous year.

Hajra quoted from The Jahangirnama, Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India: “Mu’izzulmulk had brought me a pot of Biryani and I was about to partake of it with gusto when news of the battle arrived. No sooner had I heard it than I took one mouthful for good luck and mounted, although I was very desirous of eating the Biryani....”

The researcher said: “This is the first ever mention of biryani in the history of India.”

It is indeed fascinating to note that the biryani could tempt emperors even amid battles. One can almost feel the disappointment of Jahangir having to forgo a “gusto” eating of biryani to the more pressing matters of securing the crown.

But the battle over biryani is far from over. Ask the experts in the field and one has as many theories about biryani as there are biryani outlets in the city.

Shahanshah Mirza, the great great grandson of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, traces the Awadhi biryani to the time of emperor Asaf-ud-Daula and when he was building the Asafi Imambara in Lucknow in 1784.

“There was a terrible famine in Lucknow then and the emperor decided to build a unique structure that would give work to his people. He also made provisions for food for the labourers and large pots of rice with vegetables, spices and saffron were cooked with the lid sealed with a layer of dough. One day while inspecting work, he smelt the aroma and asked his chefs to improve on it. And improve they did by replacing the vegetables with meat,” said Mirza.

That, according to Mirza, was the origin of biryani.

Restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee, who “would die for a biryani”, loves the story of the Awadhi biryani travelling to Metiabruz via Wajid Ali Shah. “I have done no research on this. But I quite like the story of Wajid Ali Shah and the biryani with the potato,” he said.

Culture historian Jayanta Sengupta said: “For any popular food, be it biryani or maggi, there is always an imagined long historical narrative. Whether Jahangir or Wajid Ali Shah ate biryani, I am not sure. What they definitely ate was the pulao, which is a sophisticated, aristocratic dish. In comparison, biryani is a dish for the masses.”

Stressing that we have been eating the meat-and-rice combination for over 3,000 years, Hajra quoted from Brihadaranyaka Upanishada, which speaks of a dish called Mamsaudana, odana meaning rice and mamsa is meat.

The shloka advises that people should have the dish made with bull’s meat, rice and ghee to beget a son. Patriarchy rears its head even in biryani. Zer Biryan, the predecessor of the modern biryani, is described in medieval cookbooks. “For Zer Biryani, we have an instruction on how to put the dish on dum: seal the mouth of the deg with kneaded wheat flour dough,” he said.

Zer means under or hidden under. Succulent pieces of meat are under the cover of flavoured rice.

Only the lucky crowd at Calcutta Rowing Club that evening got to sample the meat zer (under) the rice, courtesy Biryanishk.