Crowned the ‘King of Spices’, pepper is the most widely traded spice in the world. Wars were fought over it, empires rose and fell, colonial fortunes were built and entire geographies were shaped by the wrinkly, dark, diminutive peppercorn. The very word pepper is derived from Pippali, Sanskrit for ‘long pepper’ and both the long and round versions are native to the hills of South India.
Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) was as much spice and seasoning as supplement, preservative or folk medicine. Three types of peppercorns originate from the same plant — green (freshly harvested fruit), black (dried version) and white (a peeled by-product). The spiciness is attributed to the chemical piperine and its essential oil has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing properties and reduces rheumatism, arthritis and skin problems. In chapter five of Buddhist text Samannaphala Sutta (The Fruit of Contemplative Life), pepper is one of the few natural medicines a monk is allowed to carry. Since ancient times, pepper was exported from Muziris/Pattanam in Kerala to Rome and Egypt. Interestingly, pepper was found in the nostrils of Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II, mummified in 1213 BC — indicating that the spice had been traded for over three millennia. Since Romans conquered much of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, the craze for pepper spiralled and fuelled more trade with India. Each year, the Roman Empire dispatched a fleet of 120 ships to Kerala to bring back this treasure, valued as ‘Black Gold’. It’s intriguing that an old temple of Augustus once stood in Kodungallur (proof of well-entrenched trade ties) while Roman ports like Ostia had ‘horrea’, exclusive pepper warehouses. Intellectuals of the time bemoaned how Rome bled because of pepper trade.
After the fall of Rome, Arab traders took over while the Italians maintained hegemony over the Mediterranean. The lucrative pepper trade spawned the rise of city-states like Genoa and Venice. To bypass Arab middlemen, the Portuguese sought a direct trade route to India. In 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and landed on Kerala’s legendary ‘Spice Coast’, seeking “Christians and pepper”. This ushered the Golden Age of Discovery and the Portuguese controlled the spice trade for nearly 150 years.
The only pepper that rivalled it was further up the Western Ghats beyond Kodagu and Malnad, in Uttara Kannada — larger and slightly milder. Affonso Mexia, the Portuguese captain of Cochin wrote to the King of Portugal that “between Baticala (Batticaloa in Ceylon) and Goa, there are certain places called ‘Onor’ (Honnavar), ‘Mergen’ (Mirjan) and ‘Ancola’ (Ankola) under the dominion of the Queen of ‘Guarcopa’ (Gerusoppa) from where 5,000 crusados worth of pepper are annually shipped.”
No story of pepper would be complete without mentioning Rani Channabhairadevi of the Saluva dynasty. Ruling from Gerusoppa for 54 years, she thwarted multiple Portuguese attempts to control the seaports, inflicting defeats on them in 1559 and 1570. The Portuguese exalted her as ‘Raina de Pimenta’ literally ‘Pepper Queen’.
As the pepper wars heated up, so did the jostle for spice trade. St Angelo Fort in Kannur, the first European fort in India, changed hands from the Portuguese to the Dutch, the Arakkal Ali Rajas and the British. In 1683, the British pushed the French to Mahe and developed Thalassery as their base for pepper and cardamom trade. Thalassery Fort was set up in 1708 to protect British trade interests and pepper exported from the port town became globally known as ‘Tellicherry Black.’ Pepper grew on vines and was not labour intensive; as a result, the natives adopted a leisurely, laid-back lifestyle. It is said that a family in Malabar could sustain itself for a month by selling just one kilogram of Tellicherry Black.
There is another fascinating pepper lore from World War I. Over a million Indians fought in the frontlines of a war that wasn’t theirs. To bypass British censors who combed every mail for leaks about the war or negative views that would impact army recruitments, Indian soldiers used the mild ‘red pepper’ to refer to the British and ‘black pepper’ as code for the doughty Indians! But it was French King Louis XIV the Great who made the greatest contribution to world cuisine — in the seventeenth century, he was the first to put salt and pepper together on his dining table, a tradition that continues to this day.
(The authors are travel/food writers and culinary consultants ‘loosely based’ in Bengaluru. With two decades of books/articles behind them, they run a travel/media outfit customising solutions for the hospitality industry. Chase their adventures on Instagram @red_scarab.)