Gulab Jamun History: India, a country of diversity, is famous all over the world for its unique culture and traditions. Diversity is seen in everything here. Here every state has its own distinct identity, lifestyle, clothing, and dialect. Apart from its culture and traditions, India is also known for its food. There are many such dishes here, whose taste is very much liked by the people coming from India and abroad. Sweets are an important part of Indian food. Often people like to eat sweets after meals. This is the reason why many types of sweets are quite popular here.
People here eat many sweets like Jalebi, Imarti, and Barfi with great enthusiasm. Gulab Jamun is also one of these sweets, which is liked by many people. The taste of this sweet made in the name of fruits and flowers is excellent. Its history is equally interesting. If this question often comes to your mind about when and how Gulab Jamun was made, then today in this article we are going to tell you about the interesting history of this delicious sweet.
This is how Gulab Jamun started
As recorded in the pages of history, the credit for the introduction of many dishes present in India goes to the Mughals. The same thing happens with Gulab Jamun. Gulab Jamun was invented by the chef of Mughal ruler Shahjahan. There is an ancient story about Gulab Jamun. According to this story, Shahjahan's chef once prepared a sweet by mistake, which he presented to the emperor.
Iranian dish Gulab Jamun made in India
It is said that this dessert was inspired by the Persian sweet dish 'Lukmat-al-Qadi', known today as Gulab Jamun. However, there is no clear evidence of this. According to food historians, Gulab Jamun was introduced in Persia (present-day Iran) around the 13th century, where it is known as 'Lukmat-al-Qadi'. To prepare the Iranian dish, balls of flour were fried in ghee and then dipped in honey or sugar syrup and eaten. The sweet inspired by this dish is called Gulab Jamun in India.
This is how Gulab Jamun reached IndAfter Iran, this sweet also started being made in Turkey, which was later brought to India by the Turkish people and thus this sweet from 'Lukmat-al-Qadi' of Iran became Gulab Jamun. It was first created during the reign of the then-Mughal ruler Shahjahan and became the favorite sweet of the Mughal Emperor. From the 17th century onwards, this sweet gradually became popular throughout the country and even today many people eat it with great fondness. Apart from India, Gulab Jamun is also made in Mauritius, Fiji, the Caribbean of Southern and East Africa, and the Malay Peninsula.
That's why it is called Gulab Jamun
Talking about the name of this dish, Gulab Jamun is made up of two words Gul and Aab. Here Gul means flower and Aab means water. In such a situation, the question arises why was this sweet named Gulab Jamun? When this sweet came to India, some people used to add rose to the sugar syrup to give it a fragrance. Due to this, by combining 'Gul' and 'Aab' it became a rose. At the same time, due to its shape like jamun, this dish came to be called 'Gulab Jamun'.
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