Mahaprabhu Recipes
Help us preserve and share the traditional offerings made for the pleasure of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
These are the names of some of the pickles and condiments in the bags of Rāghava Paṇḍita: āmra-kāśandi, ādā-kāśandi, jhāla-kāśandi, nembu-ādā, āmra-koli, āmsi, āma-khaṇḍa, tailāmra and āma-sattā. With great attention, Damayantī also made dried bitter vegetables into a powder.
Do not neglect sukutā because it is a bitter preparation. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu derived more happiness from eating this sukutā than from drinking pañcāmṛta [a preparation of milk, sugar, ghee, honey and yogurt].
She made sweetmeat balls with dried ginger to remove mucus caused by too much bile. She put all these preparations separately into small cloth bags.
She made a hundred varieties of condiments and pickles. She also made koli-śuṇṭhi, koli-cūrṇa, koli-khaṇḍa and many other preparations. How many should I name?
She made many sweetmeats in the shape of balls. Some were made with powdered coconut, and others looked as white as the water of the Ganges. In this way she made many varieties of long-lasting sugar confections.
She made long-lasting cheese, many varieties of sweetmeats with milk and cream, and many other varied preparations, such as amṛta-karpūra.
She made some of the flat rice into puffed rice, fried it in ghee, cooked it in sugar juice, mixed in some camphor and rolled it into balls.
She powdered fried grains of fine rice, moistened the powder with ghee and cooked it in a solution of sugar. Then she added camphor, black pepper, cloves, cardamom and other spices and rolled the mixture into balls that were very palatable and aromatic
She took parched rice from fine paddy, fried it in ghee, cooked it in a sugar solution, mixed in some camphor and thus made a preparation called ukhḍā or muḍki.
Some brought paiḍa [a coconut preparation], some brought sweetballs, and some brought cakes and sweet rice. The prasādam was of different varieties, all very costly.
(CC Antya 10.109)
Another variety of sweet was made with fused peas that were powdered, fried in ghee and then cooked in sugar juice. Camphor was added, and then the mixture was rolled into balls.
Damayantī took earth from the Ganges, dried it, powdered it, strained it through a fine cloth, mixed in aromatic ingredients and rolled it into small balls.
“These preparations — paiḍa, sweet rice, cakes made with cream, and also amṛta-guṭikā, maṇḍā and a pot of camphor — have been given by Advaita Ācārya.
(CC Antya 10.118)
“Next there are varieties of food — cakes, cream, amṛta-maṇḍā and padmacini — given by Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita.
(CC Antya 10.119)
The hard sweets made of coconut (mukutā nārikela), the sweetballs, the many kinds of sweet drinks and all the other preparations were at least a month old, but although they were old, they had not become tasteless or stale. Indeed, they had all stayed fresh. That is the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
(CC Antya 10.125-126)
They offered pungent preparations made with black pepper, sweet-and-sour preparations, ginger, salty preparations, limes, milk, yogurt, sugar candy, two or four kinds of spinach, soup made with bitter melon, eggplant mixed with nimba leaves, and fried paṭola.
(CC Antya 10.135-136)
They also offered phula-baḍī, liquid mung dhal and many vegetables, all cooked according to the Lord’s taste.
(CC Antya 10.137)
He offered yogurt, limes, ginger, soft baḍā and salt. Seeing all these arrangements, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very pleased.
(CC Antya 10.149)
After saying this, the Lord ate the rice mixed with yogurt and offered Caitanya dāsa the remnants of His food.
(CC Antya 10.151)
One day My mother, Śacī, offered food to Śālagrāma Viṣṇu. She offered rice cooked from śāli paddies, various kinds of vegetables, spinach, curry made of banana flowers, fried paṭola with nimba leaves, pieces of ginger with lemon, and also yogurt, milk, sugar candy and many other foods.
(CC Madhya 15.54-55)
The prasādam sent by the King had been offered at the Balagaṇḍi festival and included uncooked milk products and fruits. It was all of the finest quality, and there was no end to the variety. There were curd, fruit juice, coconut, mango, dried coconut, jackfruit, various kinds of bananas and palm-fruit seeds.
(CC Madhya 14.25)
There were curd, fruit juice, coconut, mango, dried coconut, jackfruit, various kinds of bananas and palm-fruit seeds. There were also oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, almonds, dried fruit, raisins and dates. There were hundreds of different types of sweetmeats like manoharā-lāḍu, sweets like amṛta-guṭikā and various types of condensed milk. There were also papayas and saravatī, a type of orange, and also crushed squash. There were also regular cream, fried cream and a type of purī made with cream. There were also the sweets known as hari-vallabha and sweets made of seṅoti flowers, karpūra flowers and mālatī flowers. There were pomegranates, sweets made with black pepper, sweets made with fused sugar, and amṛti-jilipi. There were lotus-flower sugar, a kind of bread made from urad dhal, crispy sweetmeats, sugar candy, fried-rice sweets, sesame-seed sweets and cookies made from sesame seeds. There were sugar-candy sweetmeats formed into the shape of orange, lemon and mango trees and arranged with fruits, flowers and leaves. There were yogurt, milk, butter, buttermilk, fruit juice, a preparation made of fried yogurt and sugar candy, and salty mung-dhal sprouts with shredded ginger. There were also various types of pickles—lemon pickle, berry pickle and so on. Indeed, I am not able to describe the variety of food offered to Lord Jagannātha.
(CC Madhya 14.26 – 14.34)
At that time the pious Śrīdhara came there with a bottle-gourd in his hand. Seeing the bottle-gourd, Śrī Gaurasundara asked him, “Where did you get that?” The Lord, however, thought, “Tomorrow I will leave, therefore I’ll not be able to eat this. “Yet whatever is brought by Śrīdhara cannot be wasted, so I must eat it today.” Thinking like this, to maintain His affection for His devotees, He requested His mother to cook the bottle-gourd. At that time one fortunate person came and offered a pot of milk. The Lord smiled and told His mother, “This is very nice. Please cook these together.” Mother Śacī immediately went to cook in great satisfaction. In this way the son of Śacī is so affectionate to His devotees. The Lord of Vaikuṇṭha thus happily passed the evening in great ecstasy.
(Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa, 28.033 – 28.041)
Whenever a squash grew on the roof of Śrīdhara’s cottage, the Lord would eat it, cooked with milk and black pepper.
(Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa 12.205)
Bhaktivinod Thakur has written a song Bhoga Arati and the Official Name for this song is Bhoga Arati (at Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda’s home at Surabhi-kuñja in Godruṁa-dvīpa). This song is taken from the book Gitavali (Section: Arati Kirtan Song 4). Bhaktivinoda Thakura talks about the different delicacies prepared by Sri Radhey. There are various delicacies both sweet and sour prepared for Sri Krishna , Balaram and His sakha’s. The remnants of the food is thoroughly enjoyed by Shree Radhe and her sakhis. Eating those remnants their heart is filled with bliss and satisfaction.
(1)
bhaja bhakata-vatsala śrī-gaurahari
śrī-gaurahari sohi goṣṭha-bihārī
nanda-jaśomatī-citta-hari
(bhaja govinda govinda gopāla)
(2)
belā ho’lo dāmodara āisa ekhano
bhoga-mandire bosi’ koraho bhojana
(3)
nandera nideśe baise giri-bara-dhārī
baladeva-saha sakhā baise sāri sāri
(4)
śuktā-śākādi bhāji nālitā kuṣmāṇḍa
dāli dālnā dugdha-tumbī dadhi mocā-khaṇḍa
(5)
mudga-borā māṣa-borā roṭikā ghṛtānna
śaṣkulī piṣṭaka khīr puli pāyasānna
(6)
karpūra amṛta-keli rambhā khīra-sāra
amṛta rasālā, amla dwādaśa prakāra
(7)
luci cini sarpurī lāḍḍu rasābalī
bhojana korena kṛṣṇa ho’ye kutūhalī
(8)
rādhikāra pakka anna vividha byañjana
parama ānande kṛṣṇa korena bhojana
(9)
chale-bale lāḍḍu khāy śrī-madhumaṅgala
bagala bājāy āra deya hari-bolo
(10)
rādhikādi gaṇe heri’ nayanera koṇe
tṛpta ho’ye khāy kṛṣṇa jaśodā-bhavane
(11)
bhojanānte piye kṛṣṇa subāsita bāri
sabe mukha prakhāloy ho’ye sāri sāri
(12)
hasta-mukha prakhāliyā jata sakhā-gaṇe
ānande biśrāma kore baladeva-sane
(13)
jambula rasāla āne tāmbūla-masālā
tāhā kheye kṛṣṇa-candra sukhe nidrā gelā
(14)
biśālākha śikhi-puccha-cāmara ḍhulāya
apūrba śayyāya kṛṣṇa sukhe nidrā jāya.
(15)
jaśomatī-ājñā pe’ye dhaniṣṭhā-ānīto
śrī-kṛṣṇa-prasāda rādhā bhuñje ho’ye prīto
(16)
lalitādi sakhī-gaṇa avaśeṣa pāya
mane mane sukhe rādhā-kṛṣṇa-guṇa gāya
(17)
hari-līlā ek-mātra jāhāra pramoda
bhogārati gāy ṭhākur bhakativinoda
TRANSLATION