While tracing the evolutionary path of boiled grains to steam cooked idlis, it occurred to me that other tribes in northwest India at the time, around the third century BC, must have used different cooking methods. The boiling of the grains was strange to Greek reporters because the usual culinary custom was very different.

Dry roasting, which evolved from the primitive practise of roasting meat over fire, must have been popular in the early days of civilization. Grain cultivation logically leads to grinding the grains and making a batter out of them. The batter was formed into a flat cake and roasted over an open fire in the oven. Oil had most likely not yet been invented at the time. As a result, the first oil-free tandoor roti was born.

The roti-roasting habit has also spread to other places. While wheat was the most common staple food in northern India, Jowar (JoLa) and other millets found acceptance in the dry lands of what is now Maharashtra and northern Karnataka. Even today, rotis made from JoLa grains are dry roasted with little oil.

Even the rice rotis (kori rotti, for example) popular in coastal Tulunad are dry roasted.

As a result, I believe oil was not widely used in cooking in the early days of civilization. Initially, vegetable oils were most likely used for lighting lamps rather than cooking. Following the introduction of the oils into cooking, it appears that til oil was commonly used in drier regions such as northern Karnataka, whereas coastal people, where coconut trees abound, ate coconut oil.

I hope this helps to answer Manjunath’s question about the use of oils in northern Karnataka prior to the introduction of ground nuts 500 years ago.