Sesame (Sesamum indicum, तीळ, तिल)

by Dr. Hema D. Sane

One is quite familiar with the version from Alibaba and forty thieves from Arabian Nights. Open sesame, close sesame translated in मराठी तिळा दार उघड तिळा लाव.

The sesame fruits are very delicate. One has to very carefully break them in order to remove the seeds without crushing them.

The seeds of sesame were first tried by mankind as the source of oil. That is why the term for oil is Sanskrit is तैल तिलात इति तैलंभ ! The Aryan community was originally residing near the North pole, the region which experiences six months of night and six month of sunny days. They got the source of oil that would not freeze at low temperature. This oil is til oil. The oil is of golden yellow colour with pleasant odour and of hot nature. That is why to get relief from headache, applied to forehead. It is used in majority of the Ayurvedic oils as the medium.

In daily kitchen articles, till is used after roasting. Roasted seeds are crushed and then added to vegetable.

Besides till is important article used for making curry powder.

The roasted seeds are added to bakery items and confectionary.

The famous festival of India संक्रांत is associated with a receipe तीळगूळ. The festival marks end of winter. Till along with gul i.e. jaggery gives more energy.

Til is also necessary for religious practices – तिलांजली is a practice of offering til to the departed soal. It indicates that all the earthenly ties of the soul are now over; For the same erason, till seeds are required for shraddha श्राद्ध ceremony.

There is wild variety of til, that naturally grown in the pastures. It is a monsoon plant and produces beautiful purple flowers. Each flower has distinct lower lip darker in colour with a still darker spot. The beauty spot on the face is called till तीळ.

That is why the plant is also known as तीळ.