“…adhvaramulu pekkulonarci vEDukan baayasammulu napūpamulu
mOdakamulu lOnugaa gala vaMTakamula nurvI suraavaLulaku brItinjEsi”
In the Drona Parva, Tikkana describes King Māndhāta, who, after performing many sacrifices, honored Vedic scholars with a feast of payasa, apūpas, and modakas—“soups, sweet cakes with sugar, milk-puddings, and fruits.” Śaṅkarācārya, in his LalitāTrishatīBhāṣya, prescribes the same offerings: sūpa, apūpa, payasa, and fruits for the Brahmins after ritual. Both accounts reflect the ancient tradition that the completion of sacrifice lies in graciously feeding the custodians of the Veda.
Apūpa, as a rice item
Rice is the life-sustaining food that all partake of. The wealthy may afford the richer and more nourishing fare called annādya. The sacred food worthy of being offered as mahā-nivedana is known as vāja. When these three forms of food unite, it is called vājajiti. For our meals to be truly vājajiti, they must be pure, unadulterated, and of wholesome quality. Such a meal should also include apūpas, payasa, and fruits.
One who eats apūpas (agni) is called apūpika. The Vedic injunction declares: “Agnayegṛhapathayepuroḍāśamkṛṣṇānāṃvrīhīṇāgum”—that is, the apūpas to be offered into the sacrificial fire must be made of black rice (kṛṣṇa-vrīhi). When prepared for ritual, these sacrificial cakes are called puroḍāśa.
As for the word apūpa itself, Telugu lexicons record its many synonyms: aṭṭu, appachchi, appaḍa in the ĀndhraVāchaspatiyam, and kajjamu, appam, appachchi, kajjāyam in the Achchha Telugu Kośam.
According to the ĀndhraVāchaspatiyam, the word apūpa denotes aṭṭu, appachchi, appaḍa; while the Achchha Telugu Kośa records it as kajjamu, appam, appachchi, kajjāyam. The ĀndhraDīpikā remarks, “All cakes made of flour are apūpas.” Similarly, the Amarakośa states: “Pūpo ’pūpaḥpiṣṭakassyāt”—that is, any preparation made of flour is to be called pūpa or apūpa.
Varieties ofApūpas
Wheat-based apūpas: rotis, chapatis, puris, crisp puris, sojjappalu.
Pulse-based apūpas: dishes made of black gram flour, such as garelu, dosa, attu, dibbaroṭṭelu, kuḍumulu, idlis, chakralu, jantikalu, and others.
Rice-flour apūpas: preparations like chalimiḍi, ariselu, and būrelu.
Milk-based apūpas: rice cooked with milk and ghee, or flour-based sweets like halwa and kēsari.
International linguist F.B.J. Kuiper examined more than 350 words in the Ṛgveda and published a list of them. It is popular as Kuipert`s List. observed that they had no Indo-Aryan roots, suggesting instead that they were borrowed from Dravidian or Munda languages. Among these is the very word apūpa. Thus, apūpa is believed to have entered Vedic Sanskrit from the Dravidian linguistic stream—serving as evidence that Dravidian peoples were already present during the Ṛgvedic age.
Apūpais a sacred foods.
The sanctity ofApūparests upon the purity of the ingredients used, the nutritional value they embody, and the wholesome manner in which they are prepared. Naivedya—the offering of food to God—stands as testimony that what we eat is nourishing, pure, and worthy of divine witness.
Yet today, what passes for ghee is not truly ghee, what is sold as oil is scarcely oil, honey is not honey, milk is adulterated, and even water is no longer water in its natural purity. In such times, safeguarding our own health becomes a struggle.
The tale of apūpa reminds us to keep our attention fixed upon sacred food, upon the quest for purity in what we eat. For our meals to remain holy, governments too must act firmly against the trade in spurious and adulterated supplies.
– Dr. GV Purnachand
