From the cauldrons of history : labour services at Mughal dining and kitchen spaces

Various types of labour providers were employed at the Mughal imperial dining spaces and kitchens that provided food for everyday consumption and on the occasion of feasts. These labour service providers can be classified into two broad categories: the imperial officers in charge of the kitchen and allied departments (such as the water and beverages department), and the domestic servants including food servers, cupbearers and cooks. The location of the kitchen and dining spaces determined which gender and what sartorial fashions would be allowed there. The duties performed by all these service providers, the etiquette they were expected to follow, the knowledge, skills and concomitant training they had to acquire were intrinsically linked to the salient notion of food as the conduit for shaping one’s inner-self. It was believed that the food one consumed affected the body’s humoral composition and brought about a qualitative – physiological and psychological – change in the being of the consumer.