Taste of Life: Why the ocean was considered a source of love foods

Sexuality and desire are intimately connected to food and the belief that certain foods can enhance sex and sexual prowess is ancient. The limitless ardour to find and consume aphrodisiacs highlights humankind’s search for the essence of life. Attitudes towards sex, procreation, gender, religion, caste, class, and pleasure determine which foods are considered to be aphrodisiacs.

In February 1862, some vigilant citizens of Pune noticed a strange activity along the banks of the Mutha River. They promptly approached the editor of the Marathi newspaper “Dnyanaprakash” who published a small note on February 18. Some men, young and old, had been sneaking out of their homes after sunset to visit a man living on the city’s outskirts. The newspaper and the vigilantes thought this was suspicious and hoped that the authorities would investigate the matter.

A week later, in the next issue, “Dnyanaprakash” wrote that it had sent a representative to make enquiries and had some information to share with its readers. The man was a Hindu from Burdwan in Bengal who had been in Pune for over a month. He had erected a tent on the banks of the river and lived there with a dog who accompanied him. He claimed to know about ancient medicine. “Dnyanaprakash”, however, speculated that its representative thought that the man indulged in Tantric rituals. Men were flocking to the man from Bengal because he claimed to cure impotency and increase virility. The man had stored his medicine in several earthen pots lined up in the tents. Those pots were said to have saltwater fish.

Seafood has been associated with sexual organs and power since ancient times. The ocean was considered a source of love foods. The Goddess Aphrodite rose from the foam surrounding the genitals of Kronos’s father, which had been severed and cast upon the waters. Worshippers of the goddess used seafood as an aphrodisiac.

In Hindu mythology, the fish was associated with God Kamadev. He, like the Grecian Eros and the Roman Cupido, was the god of erotic love, desire, pleasure, and beauty. He was the son of “Maya”, or the general attracting power, and married to “Rati”, or affection. His bosom friend was “Vasanta”, or spring. He was represented as a beautiful youth, sometimes conversing with his mother and consort amid his gardens and temples; sometimes riding by moonlight on a parrot, and attended by dancing girls or nymphs, the foremost of whom bore his colours, which were a fish on a red ground. The banner of Kamadev, a fish on a red ground, had without a doubt its allusion, to the stimulating nature of that species of food, stirring the blood to aid Kamadev’s ends.

According to The Taleef Shereef, Or Indian Materia Medica by Muhammad Sharif, the river fish was the best and most powerful aphrodisiac and tonic. The tank fish increased virility too, but were heavy. “Well fish” were good aphrodisiacs but increased mucus and caused disorders of the bowels. Salt-water fish helped increase semen. “Muttreegurba”, or the eggs of fish, cured seminal weakness. The very small fish, known as “Potie” in Deccan (Cyprinus Chyssopareius) was sweet to the taste, and according to the manual was strengthening and aphrodisiac.

Edward Moor, the British soldier and Indologist, known for his book “The Hindu Pantheon”, who called the inhabitants of India a “salacious race”, wrote about a quack who pretended to possess a portion of a wonderful fish, that he called “Mahi Sukkun Khur”, a name that might be traced to Kama’s fish, both as to family and effect. Impotent and old men sought with avidity this rare invigorating drug; and, at Poona, Moor heard, that Nana Fadanavis, attracted by the fame of the Mahomedan traveller, who possessed a piece of it, was in treaty for its purchase at an enormous price, but prudently made a previous reference to some gentlemen at the English Residency for their opinion of its powers; and, on being discouraged, declined the offered bargain.

According to the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Poona Bhois believed that a fish called “Vaavas” lived at Rahu Pimpalgaon and while Goddess Sita was bathing in the river, the wheel-shaped “Vaavas” bit a piece out of the calf of her leg. Hence, the fish was always found with a piece of butter in its mouth. Praying to the fish cured impotence, they believed.

The Bhois of Poona had the following belief about “Ahir”, Anguilla bengalensis or the eel: “On a Saturday, the impotent man should strip himself naked and grind black gram. With the flour of the black gram, he should bait a hook, and, when he has caught an “Ahir”, he should put it into a broad basin of water in which it can swim. He should then rub red-lead or “shendur” on the “Ahir’s” head; and, taking it in his hand, say to it – ‘Oh fish! I am changing my state for you by taking this slimy ‘balas’ from your skin. Please accept my offering.’ He should then remove the “balas”, and, when it is dry, roll it into pills, which when eaten will restore his manly power.”

The eel was a metaphor for the male sexual organ, and, hence, eel dishes were a favourite aphrodisiac.In the June 7, 1654, issue of “Mercurius Fumigosus”, a recommendation was made for eel pies as an “excellent provocative”. Doctors in the nineteenth century believed that fish contained nutrients that enhanced sexual desire and functions. The “Bombay Herald”, on March 12, 1884, published a tiny note from one Dr Horowitz of Parel who advised men to consume eel soup to recover from the malaise of fever. He did not forget to add that the dish was “potent invigorative”.

In May 1859, Dr H Routh recommended couger-eel soup to improve strength and appetite. He also advised to eat boiled eel with cheese to make “your voice hoarse”. The “hoarse voice” clearly referred to manliness. Routh’s note was published in 1872 in the “Poona Observer”. I have not been able to find the original source.

Newspapers published in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Maharashtra were full of advertisements for medicines claiming to cure impotence and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) indicating the demand and need for them. Patriarchy, times of anxiety, sexual repression, and boredom had encouraged promiscuity. Leaders like BG Tilak, MG Ranade, and GG Agarkar were preaching against the “vice” of prostitution. They warned that students were being led astray due to sexual urges and demanded a ban on prostitution.

With a low life expectancy, the boundless desire to ensure immortality for oneself and the family created a need to increase fertility and potency. Nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries demanded men to be strong and virile. The tussle between the physical spheres of power where the Europeans were considered to be superior to the (self-proclaimed) morally superior Hindus resulted in confusion where abstinence was considered to be pure and divine, but one was also expected to produce strong and intelligent offspring to serve the country. No wonder, Ayurvedic practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, and quacks selling aphrodisiacs in Pune never went out of business.

In July 1932, “Vartanidhi”, the Marathi newspaper from Ahmednagar, published an article which drew attention towards the “unhealthy” attraction of the Hindu youth from Mumbai and Pune towards the “Panchamakara” that was forbidden in the religion. “Panchamakara” was the Tantric term for the five main ingredients in a Tantric practice. These were “madya” (alcohol), “mamsa” (meat), “matsya” (fish), “mudra” (grain), and “maithuna” (sexual intercourse). The article contended that the practice of eating meat and fish was encouraged by some nationalist leaders who believed that they were necessary for vigour and strength.

In an article published in the Marathi magazine “Kirloskar” in 1936 about the sport of fishing, Bhanu Shirdhankar, the acclaimed author, elaborated on the invigorating properties of fish. It had then acquired a luxury status and was slightly less associated with the impurity and filth of meat.

I am curious to know if men from Pune consumed fish given by the man from Burdwan who visited the city in 1862. But no more issues of “Dnyanaprakash” from that year survive today.