Among the learned Brahmins of 7th-century India, the meal (bhojana) was not an appetizer-main-dessert succession but a spread served all at once on a banana leaf or copper plate (thali): a base of rice or flatbreads surrounded by several small portions — a dal, a spiced vegetable, a sour dairy, a touch of sweet — arranged in a ritual order from savory to sweet. One eats with the right hand, twice a day, after an ablution, in silence conducive to concentration. Vegetarian purity (no meat or eggs) governs everything.

Clarified butter (ghrita) is the sacred fat that binds each dish; heat comes not from chili (unknown in India before 1492) but from long pepper (pippali), black pepper (maricha), and dried ginger (shunthi), a medicinal triad from Ayurveda.