Here is a dump of stuff collected from
HCIPThe periods mentioned in some sections only indicate the volume of HCIP from where I got the stuff - it does not mean people in other ages did not eat the mentioned food items.
Food:Around 1000 BC - 400 BC (Vedic age):
- Milk and its products - especially ghrita (ghee) formed the principal ingredients
- Grain was ground into flour and them mixed with grain and butter, and finally made into cakes
- Vegetables and fruits
Around 400 BC - 200 AD (Age of Imperial Unity):
- Rice, barley and wheat were chief foodgrains
- Rich people and Kshaitriyas ate rice mixed with meat
- Udyoyga Parva (of the Mahabharat) has an interesting verse: Food of the rich consists of flesh, that of the middle class, of milk and its products, and that of the poor, of oil preparations
- Large number of dainties and sweetmeats were known.
- Vinaya Pitaka refer to: rice, beans, tila seeds, fresh honey, rice-milk, curries, salt, molasses, oil, pot-herbs, fruits, fish, meat
- Five products of cow: milk, curd, ghee, buttermilk, butter
Around 200 AD - 600 AD (Classical Age):
- Pulses, chapati
- Fa-Hein: Killing animals, drinking wine, eating onions and garlic were unknown in Madhyadesha
- Huien-Tsang: Cakes, parched grain, milk and sugar, mustard oil, fish, flesh of goats. Onion and garlic looked down upon.
In general, Smriti texts have various rules related to lawful and forbidden food and drink. About meat eating - there is a distinct tendency towards abstention.
Drink:In the Vedic age,
- Soma - invigorating drink - related to sacrifices
- Sura - popular and extremely intoxicating. Probably distilled from grain. It is condemned as "leading people to crime and godlessness".
Age of Imperial Unity,
- Grape juice, syrups made from various fruits, sugarcane juice
Classical Age,
- In contemporary dramas, queens and high-born ladies are described as drinking wine
Arthashastra mentions: rice beer (medaka), a sort of spiced beer made of flour (prasanna), wood-apple wine (asava), a liquor made of raw sugar, bark of mesasringa tree and pepper (maireya), mango wine (sahakarasura)
