Birbal Cooks Khichri

Birbal had his own unique ways of solving the matters. Khichri is an Indian dish mostly made of rice and lentils. When it is an informal mixture of certain things, we also call it Khichri. To understand as to why the need to cook Khichri was felt and why Birbal adopted a particular manner to cook it, we will have to know a little bit of its background.

Once Akbar, the great and his courtier Birbal were roaming together on the bank of river Yamuna, which flows quite close to the famous Red Fort of Mughuls. There was a Sadhu standing in the river. Now those were the winter days and the water was icy cold. Akbar wondered how this Sadhu could remain in such a cold water. He questioned him about it. The Sadhu replied that he wanted to remain in the water for as long as he could bear, as a penance and that this was the part of his meditation. Akbar wondered again. He asked him, ‘Could you stay in the water for whole night?’ The Sadhu said that he was trying his best to do so. Akbar announced, ‘Alright if you stay in this cold water for whole of the night, without any outer support I will reward you’, and then he left the place.

The next morning Akbar visited the place again to ascertain the fate of the Sadhu. He saw that the Sadhu was still standing in the river water. Akbar said, ‘I wonder how could you manage to stay in this icy cold water throughout the night.’ The Sadhu replied that he looked towards the lamp illuminated far away on the walls of the Fort and felt warmed up. The light of the lamp gave him hope and energy to stick to his penance.’ Akbar said I had come to reward you but since you have taken the support of that lamp, I am sorry that you do not deserve the reward at all’ and left. Birbal was with him. He felt that the King had done injustice to the Sadhu, but at that moment he just kept quiet.

After a few days, the King along with Birbal, some friends and the guards etc. went out for hunting. The hunting session lasted for several days. The edibles that they had brought with them exhausted. Before starting on their return journey, they needed some food to satisfy their hunger. Akbar asked Birbal to make arrangements for the same. Birbal managed to get some rice and lentils etc. and decided to cook Khichri for the party. He mixed up all the ingredients and put them in a pot and arranged fire for cooking. But the strange thing he did was that he did not keep the pot directly on the burning fire. But kept it on the branch of a tree above. The fire was burning on the ground and the pot was on the branch of a tree, say about 10 to 12 ft. above.

We can understand that this way it was not possible to cook. Akbar and his party members were eagerly waiting to have some food. He asked Birbal about the food. Birbal replied that it was being cooked. After several hours, Akbar got impatient and came out of his tent to see what was being cooked and how? He was surprised to see that the pot was kept on the branch of the tree and the fire was lit beneath on the ground and at-once remarked. ‘This way your Kichri will never be cooked.’ Birbal humbly replied, ‘Your majesty, if that Sadhu could take energy from a far off lamp, why this Khichri cannot be cooked.’ Akbar realized his folly and said, yes you are right I must reward the Sadhu Rest assured that soon after returning, the first thing that I do, would be to reward the Sadhu. Now please cook the Khichri on the fire, the right way.’