When Trinculo in The Tempest asked, “How cam’st thou in this pickle?”, little did Shakespeare know that this would not be considered an undesirable turn of fate if you were in India. Come summer, and it is not rare to see large glass jars filled with pickles of various kinds dotting balconies and roofs that catch the sun.
From the classic aam ka achaar/mango pickle, to nimbu achaar/ lime pickle, which can be both spicy and sweet, to mirchi ka achaar/chilli pickle, to name a few, there is a pickle to suit your taste across India.
From my early teens until I was around 18, I remember finishing every meal with a small bowl of spicy aamer aachar (mango pickle), which my nanny made jars and jars of every year. Wedges of green mango were marinated in mustard oil with a range of pickling spices, including fenugreek, mustard seeds, chilli, and salt.
I would see trays filled with cut green mangoes, mixed with turmeric powder and salt, and left in the sun for days on end to dry. This mango – if I had not got my hands on it and eaten it by the time my nanny got to it – would then be mixed with the oil and spices and left in sealed glass jars in the sun for at least a month.
Another big favourite in our house was a Bengal special – Kooler aachar, a sweet-and-spicy pickle made with ripe berries, usually flavoured with jaggery and with a more treacly consistency. Jalpai, another speciality of the East, is a pickle made with Indian olives.
A breakfast regular in North India
In the North, achaar is a staple even at breakfast, with parathas being served with pickle. And the quintessential North Indian or Punjabi pickle is the mixed vegetable–carrot and radish–pickle, and a black lime pickle, which I quite love.
The Andhra pickles are to die for – the gongura achaar, a tomato achaar, which are the perfect addition to rice, ghee and dal pappu. These are spicy and delicious to boot. Another very popular pickle in the North is the Morabba – a preserve of boiled fruit (mango, amla) cooked in a spiced sugar syrup.
That pickles are very common in a tropical country like India is unsurprising, given that they last for months on end and are dried in the sun. Pickling essentially falls under the category of “cooking without fire”, with only the heat of the sun being used to create an edible product.
Wedges of green mango are marinated in mustard oil with a range of pickling spices, including fenugreek, mustard seeds, chilli, and salt. (Photo: Photo by Ujjwal Jajoo on Unsplash)
The avakkai of Andhra Pradesh is one of the most well-known uncooked pickles. Of course, today we do cook the pickling spices and oil over the fire – mustard seeds are a must – then add the mango or other vegetables, or lime, which is tossed with turmeric powder and salt, then crushed spices like asafoetida, chilis, and methi seeds.
In fact, the popularity of pickles across India was so ingrained that a Kannada work of AD 1594 describes no less than 50 kinds of pickle. The main difference between pickles is that local fruits or vegetables are used, and mustard oil is used in the North and East. And sesame oil is more prevalent in the South and West.
While this might lead you to believe that India is the birthplace of pickle and achar is indeed supposed to have Arabic or Urdu roots, we can also lean on the fact that it was mentioned by Rumphius, the German-born botanist employed by the Dutch East India Company, in AD 1750 – “chili is referred to as axi or achi, hence comes the Indian name achar for pickles”.
Etymology of pickles
Most Indian languages have a name for achaar, such as Sanskrit sandan or sandin, Gujarati athanu, goondas and chundo, Tamil urukai, Kannada uppinakayi, and Hindi achar or Bengali aachaar. In AD 1563, Portuguese physician Garcia da Orta describes a conserve of cashew in salt in Goa, “and they call it achar”.
About 30 years later, Dutch merchant, writer, and explorer Linschoten, writing in Dutch, uses the same word and is also credited with introducing the concept of pickle as we know it in India to Europe. In 1687, bamboo-achar and mango-achar are noted in Thailand and Indonesia, leaving the pickle’s origin and the word open.
Though commonly ascribed a Persian origin, Hobson-Jobson hints that it may even have originated in western Asia from the Latin acetaria.
Either way, may the world find itself in a pickle – and an Indian one at that. I would recommend trying regional pickles wherever you travel, especially if you are visiting India.
You will be promised a true taste of the country: spicy, piquant, and sometimes with a sweet aftertaste.
Next week, I will be writing about the range of sweets that received a GI tag in 2025 and whether they deserve it!
