Exhibition on India’s ancient food history “Historical Gastronomica – The Indus Dining Experience”

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New Delhi : The National Museum, New Delhi, is hosting a unique exhibition on India’s ancient food history “Historical Gastronomica – The Indus Dining Experience” from February 19 to February 25, 2020, that goes back to more than 5,000 years ago.

The National Museum houses an impressive collection of Indus valley Civilisation artefacts. The Indus Valley Civilisation gallery has one of the world’s most significant collections of this glorious Indian civilisation. This thematic gallery also displays the famous Bronze Dancing Girl, which was excavated from Mohenjodaro, a Harappan site.

Indus Dining Experience’, curated jointly by the National Museum and One Station Million Stories (OSMS) ,  is based on archaeological research, museum artefacts and their characteristics. The exhibition at the National Museum features (i) an illustrative story of man’s food history since his evolution and continues to conclude at the Indus-Saraswati Civilisation (ii) Gallery Walk:  Use of Harrapan pottery and artefacts (iii) Food Tasting: finger-food samplers and dinners. A model of a Late Harappan Kitchen and other specially designed exhibits, recreated by OSMS, take viewers back to the Harappan Era.

The exhibition demonstrates how the first humans evolved due to food habits, learnt to distinguish edible from non-edible substance, food processing techniques and related architecture of the Harappans. It shows how Climate Change defined and continues to define Food Security. The exhibition will resonate with anyone working towards the future of food.

Genomic data from diverse present-day South Asians reveal that there is a continuity in our ancestral lineage linking us to the Iranian agriculturalists and South Asian hunter-gathers. Combined with the traditional knowledge of cooking styles and methods still practiced in present day villages of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Sindh and Baloch, it is possible that our basic diet bear more similarities to present day consumption than differences as these area matter of innate taste, according to a PIB release.

One of the main draws of this exhibition is tasting the food of the Indus-Saraswati Civilization — recreated by National Award-winning Chef Saby (Sabyasachi Gorai). Saby, who has a cult following in the culinary world, is the President – Young Chefs’ Forum of the Indian Federation of Culinary Associations (IFCA).

One Station Million Stories is a Delhi-based dynamic team that specialises in the craft of storytelling through extensive technical research. This event, organized by National Museum, OSMS and Fabrica by Chef Saby, is truly a Made in India event with an international appeal.