The Mistress of Spices

In Indian traditions, spices are imbued with symbolic meanings and integral to various aspects of life including health, spirituality, and rituals. Divakaruni uses spices as a narrative device to delve into these deeper cultural significances. Each spice in the novel resonates with specific emotions, desires, and life forces, transforming them into symbols of the Indian cultural ethos.

Spices have been important in India for millennia, with maritime spice trade networks between Southern India and Sri Lanka dating back to 1500 BC. Due to the spice trade, Indian spices became used in culinary, religious, and medicinal practices in different cultures, and they became a valuable export. One of the aims of 15th-century European explorers was to establish new trade routes to facilitate the spice trade.

While India is regionally and culturally diverse, spices are important throughout the subcontinent. Indian cooking is famous for its use of fragrant, flavorful spices, even as cuisines vary across the country. Ayurveda, a 3,000-year-old medicinal practice, is still popular today and incorporates treatments created with medicinal plants and spices. Common ayurvedic spices include turmeric, ginger, fenugreek, and cinnamon, which are used as chapter titles and thematic anchors in The Mistress of Spices. Spices retain spiritual and practical significance for many Indian religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

Tilo’s character as a mistress of spices is reminiscent of traditional ayurvedic and spiritual figures, who were often depicted as possessing profound knowledge and mystical powers, much like Tilo’s ability to understand and manipulate the hidden powers of spices. Today, ayurveda is more standardized and separated from its mystical roots. Tilo’s portrayal taps into the longstanding traditions in which knowledge of herbal remedies and natural elements is passed down through generations, often by women. This aspect of the novel underscores the value placed on oral traditions and the wisdom of the elders in Indian culture.

The cultural context is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the novel. Divakaruni’s narrative is a celebration of Indian cultural heritage, particularly the profound and sometimes transcendent significance that spices hold within this culture. The novel invites readers to view Indian traditions and folklore not as relics but as living elements that continue to influence and shape the lives of people, both in India and in the diaspora.