The History of Rasam

Once upon a time, there was a cook called Anna. His wife was called 'Thayir Sadam'. Anna had two sons, Rasam and Sambar. Sambar was the elder one. Anna loved them a lot and fed them the best food possible, for he was the number 1 cook in Tamil Nadu. His wife used to work in the king's court while he would be busy taking care of the 10 cooks who worked under him. Anna was in tremendous demand for any marriage that took place in Tamil Nadu. His dream was that when his sons grew up they would join his business. The last dish in any meal prepared by Anna's crew would always be Curd Rice, a recipe invented by his wife, Thayir Sadam.

Sambar gained notoriety when he prepared a dish for his third cousin's marriage which was attended by Prince Chola XIII. He had just turned 18(Sambar, not the prince). People started bugging Anna about Sambar's dish and soon enough Sambar joined his father's troupe. Anna's business grew tenfold and he could not have been happier with his life. When people learnt that Sambar's preparation could be had with rice, idli, dosa and curd rice, they went mad with happiness. The next few years were a glorious period for Tamil Nadu. Prince Chola XIII sent envoys to Indonesia to export Sambar's dish and Sambar became world famous. Anna started trading with other countries in South East Asia, China, Egypt, and Rome.

Something strange happened one day. A strange astrologer from a distant land visited the King's court. He named Sambar's dish as simply 'sambar'. However he predicted that there will come a day when sambar's fame would diminish and give away to a new dish. The Prince, although disturbed by this statement, ignored him as he did not believe in harming peaceful travellers.

During Sambar's rise to glory Rasam was away in Gujarat learning the art of making Kadhi and sampling some amazing aam ras. In Ahmedabad he met a girl called "Mor Kuzhambu" whose family had migrated from Tamil Nadu generations ago. He married her and decided to settle down in the same town as his father and elder brother. However, when he came back things seemed a little different. All everyone did in Tamil Nadu was eat Sambar's dish. The Prince had ordered that everyone in Tamil Nadu had to start a meal with sambar rice and end it as always, with Curd Rice. And his brother was totally changed. Fame, money and power had consumed him and Rasam could not recognize him. Saddened by the situation, Rasam moved to his own place (which was unknown in those joint-family days) and started his own small business, separate from that of his father's. Angered by this, Anna used all his influence to prevent Rasam's business from getting a foot-hold.

A few years passed on. Thayir sadam did not like the ensuing state of affairs. She sneaked out one day to visit her younger son. Rasam was slurping away the last of his meal off his banana leaf when his mom came in. He immediately got up and ran to offer his respects to his mom.
 "Amma! Its been so long. Please come in. Mor Khozambu, look who has come! Put one more leaf next to mine!".
 "No, no, I just had lunch....", Amma protested.
 "But this is your first time ma, just sit down..."
And so Thayir Sadam ate. She ate so much and for so long, the world seemed to pause. "This is so awesome! So simple, yet tasty. What do you call this?"
 "We call it rasam ma. Mor Khozambu named it after me. I wanted to call it something else but..."
 "I know this is weird, but can you give me the recipe?"
 "Ofcourse ma. Its in the public domain."
 "What!!!", gasped Thayir Sadam. Since Anna's time, all recipes were proprietary and patented under his name. The last famous recipe in the public domain was Thayir Sadam's own recipe: Curd rice, and that was before she got married.
 "You are my true son da. God bless you"
 "Poo, its nothing ma. Its right under your recipe in the temple near Prince Chola's palace." All recipes under the WTFPL were written on that temple's walls in those days.
 "You mean its been there all along? How long has it been there?!", asked Thayir Sadam.
 "13 years. Since I came back."
 "Your time has come son.", said Thayir Sadam and she took her leave.

When Anna came back from work his wife offered him a new dish. The moment Anna had scooped a handful of the preparation into his mouth, he was transported back to his childhood (when his mom used to make awesome dosas). Yes, it was his mom who had invented the dosa, and who was his inspiration. This dish was so good tears started flowing from his eyes (after he had finished everything on his leaf, but of course!).
"What is this heavenly thing, Oh Thayir Sadam?", asked Anna.
"Its a dish made by our Rasam."
"Hmm. I should have guessed. There is something I should have told you long back."
"Huh...? What?"
"Sambar is an idiot. That dish he 'invented' was made by Rasam when he was 10 years old. Rasam gave me the idea of passing it off as Sambar's dish because you know..."
There were tears in her eyes. She had no idea how much her younger son had sacrificed.
"But...why?"
"Rasam is an avatar of Lord Krishna. He told me what to do, and how can I refuse?"
Thayir Sadam: "Boo. Don't give me poppycock. There is no god. You never did like him a lot did you?"
"Damn! Can't fool you. Well, he told me Sambar would never get along with him."
"Pthoeey. Sambar! Come here at once."
"Yes ma. What happened?", said Sambar.
"Do you have any problem with your brother?"
"Me? Na. Thought Appa did."
"Ok, shush. Taste this."
Sambar tasted Rasam's dish and shook like a leaf in the wind!
"What is this heavenly thing?"
"This, my son is rasam. Just like you made sambar."
"This is better than anything you have ever made!"
"Yeah, I know."
"Since my invention is called sambar, let my brother's be 'rasam'!"
("Your invention my foot", muttered Thayir Sadam under her breath)


Anna then took the dish to Prince Chola (XIII). He was so overwhelmed he gifted Anna an island in the Indian ocean. There were even talks of overturning the Prince's earlier decision to start every meal with sambar, and instead start with rasam. But the Prince's wife would have none of this.
"All our sons start eating their meals with sambar... how can you suddenly make them eat this rasam, however delicious it might be?"
Being weak and henpecked, the Prince relented.

Rasam however did not care for such wordly matters. He moved to the Udipi region in Karnataka with his family. It is said that he was influential in creating and propogating the Udipi style of cooking.

To this day, rasam is eaten after sambar in Tamil Nadu. All because of a crazy woman.


Epilogue:
As you may have guessed, Mor Kuzhambu was instrumental in making the south indian version of Kadhi, named after her, as mor kuzhambu.

Author's note:
I started writing this story after making rasam yesterday. I wondered about the history of rasam but could find nothing on the net apart from its name in all the south indian languages. Hence, I decided to write my own history. As historical accounts usually are, this one is prejudiced against sambar, cos I am a rasam fanboy. If you are from Tamil Nadu, you will know that rasam is always eaten after sambar in any meal. However, I always make it a point to eat rasam at least 3 times before I move on to curd rice. Go Rasam!