Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Alcoholic drinks from Ancient and early medieval India

Sīdhu (सीधु), sugarcane-juice wineसीधु

Sīdhu was the basic fermented sugarcane drink of ancient India, a plain sugar wine without strong additives. The Suśrutasaṃhitā names sīdhus made from boiled juice, unboiled juice, jaggery or sugar, and one made from mahua flowers. It describes their effects but gives no brewing steps, so the steps here only outline the order the drink implies, with modern sugarcane-juice fermentation as a guide.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo amounts, proportions or brewing instructions appear in the Suśrutasaṃhitā chapter read here, which names the sīdhus and describes their effects.
Sugarcane juice, boiled or unboiledThe Suśrutasaṃhitā names a boiled-juice sīdhu (pakka rasa) and an unboiled-juice sīdhu (śīta rasika); McHugh calls sīdhu the basic fermented sugarcane drink[susruta1907][mchugh2020]
Jaggery (guḍa) or sugar (śarkarā)The base of the guḍa sīdhu and the śarkarā sīdhu; the translation glosses guḍa sīdhu as made with boiled cane juice and dhātakī flowers[susruta1907]
Dhātakī flowersNamed in the guḍa sīdhu and the jāmbava sīdhu[susruta1907]
Madhūka (mahua) flowersThe base of a separate sīdhu[susruta1907]
Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Sugarcane is crushed and the sweet juice runs out

Step 1 of 4
Crush the cane for its juice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The Suśrutasaṃhitā describes sugarcane juice eaten raw and juice pressed out in other ways. Output: fresh sugarcane juice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Sīdhu was the basic fermented sugarcane drink of ancient India, a plain sugar wine without strong additives. The Suśrutasaṃhitā names sīdhus made from boiled juice, unboiled juice, jaggery or sugar, and one made from mahua flowers. It describes their effects but gives no brewing steps, so the steps here only outline the order the drink implies, with modern sugarcane-juice fermentation as a guide.

What makes this one different

Sīdhu is plain sugar wine, not strongly defined by additives. Āsavas, ariṣṭas and maireya are also made with sugar products but are defined by their additions, and surā is made from rice paste.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pakka rasa sīdhuFrom boiled sugarcane juice; the Suśrutasaṃhitā says it improves the complexion, gives strength and relish for food, and is laxative and appetising.
  • Śīta rasika sīdhuFrom unboiled sugarcane juice; the Suśrutasaṃhitā calls it a digestant and vocal tonic, helpful in oedema and piles. Later glossaries cite the Caraka and Suśruta texts for śīdhu as unboiled cane juice.
  • Guḍa and śarkarā sīdhuWines of jaggery and of sugar. The translation of the Suśrutasaṃhitā describes guḍa sīdhu as made with boiled cane juice and dhātakī flowers.
  • Mahua-flower sīdhuFrom madhūka flowers; the Suśrutasaṃhitā calls it slow to digest, followed by an acid reaction, and said to improve strength and digestive capacity.

Safety

In modern cane-juice ferments the risks are spoilage by bacteria from the stalks, which multiply if cut cane is not crushed quickly, and lactic acid bacteria that compete with the yeast. Keeping the ferment cool, below about 35 °C, protects the yeast [corbion2023].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Suśrutasaṃhitā, an Ayurvedic medical text, lists the sīdhus (boiled-juice, unboiled-juice, jaggery, sugar and mahua-flower) beside surā, āsavas and other wines in its chapter on liquid substances. Wisdom Library's glossary cites the Carakasaṃhitā (Sū. 27.190) and the Suśrutasaṃhitā (Sū. 45.182) for śīdhu as unboiled sugarcane juice, and Sūrapāla's Vṛkṣāyurveda (about 1000 CE) uses sīdhu to mean liquor. Later Sanskrit dictionaries gloss sīdhu as a spirit distilled from molasses, a different and later sense.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [mchugh2020] McHugh J. 2020, Sīdhu (Śīdhu): the Sugar Cane Wine of Ancient and Early Medieval India (abstract), History of Science in South Asia 8:36–56paper
  2. [susruta1907] Bhishagratna K.K.L. (transl.) 1907, The Sushruta Samhita, volume 1, Sutrasthana, chapter XLV, Knowledge of liquid substances (English translation, read on Wisdom Library)book
  3. [corbion2023] Corbion C., Smith-Ravin J., Marcelin O., Bouajila J. 2023, An Overview of Spirits Made from Sugarcane Juice, Molecules 28(19):6810 (modern cane-juice fermentation)paper
  4. [s1] Wisdom Library, Sidhu (definitions citing Caraka, Suśruta, the Vṛkṣāyurveda and Sanskrit dictionaries)web