Editing Paneer (section)

==History==
{{Further information|Chhena}}
[[File:Sp rajjo.jpg|thumb|alt=A gravy-based dish with many thick cheese cubes together with some vegetables and spices is shown. In the lower parts of the image, some coriander leaves have been added on top as a garnish.|''[[Shahi paneer]]'', a dish from the [[Indian subcontinent]] with paneer as a primary ingredient]]

The origin of paneer is debated. [[Vedic period|Ancient Indian]], [[Afghan people|Afghan]], [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] and [[Portuguese India|Portuguese]] origins have been proposed for paneer.<ref name="Sanjeev_2010"/><ref>{{cite book |first1=Timothy G. |last1=Roufs |first2=Kathleen |last2=Smyth Roufs |title=Sweet Treats Around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture |year=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781610692212 |page=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M_eCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168}}</ref>

Legends about [[Krishna]] make several references to milk, butter, [[ghee]] and [[dahi (curd)|dahi]] (yogurt), but do not mention [[sour milk cheese]].<ref name="Harlan_2000">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuor2vcVtiQC&pg=PA57 |title=Milk - Beyond the Dairy: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1999 |editor-first=Harlan |editor-last=Walker |publisher=Oxford Symposium |year=2000 |isbn=9781903018064 |pages=53–57}}</ref> According to [[Arthur Berriedale Keith]], a kind of cheese is "perhaps referred to" in [[Rigveda]] 6.48.18.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6TVLlPvuMAC&pg=PA209 |title=Vedic Index of Names and Subjects |author-link=Arthur Berriedale Keith |first=Arthur Berriedale |last=Keith |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=1995 |isbn=9788120813328 |page=209}}</ref> However, [[Otto Schrader (philologist)|Otto Schrader]] (1890) believes that the Rigveda only mentions "a skin of sour milk, not cheese in the proper sense".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107733 |title=Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples |author-link=Otto Schrader (philologist) |first=Otto |last=Schrader |publisher=C. Griffin |year=1890 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107733/page/n339 319]}}</ref> Vedic literature refers to a substance that is interpreted by some authors, such as [[K. T. Achaya]], [[Om Prakash (historian)|Om Prakash]] and [[Sanjeev Kapoor]], as a possible form of paneer, but without definitive evidence.<ref name="Sanjeev_2010">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=heG2bdW_NrMC&pg=PA3 |title=Paneer |first=Sanjeev |last=Kapoor |author-link=Sanjeev Kapoor |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=2010 |isbn=9788179913307 |page=3}}</ref>

[[Catherine Donnelly]], author of ''The Oxford Companion to Cheese'' (2016), mentions that Vedic literature refers to cheese production made with the aid of barks of palash tree (''[[Butea monosperma]]''), fruits like jujube (''[[Ziziphus mauritiana]]'') and creeper like putika with coagulating enzymes, "as well as Dadhanvat, a cheese-like substance made with and without pores". According to Catherine Donnelly, these plant substances may have contained [[rennet]]-like enzymes and notes that the "Vedas may include some of the earliest known references to rennet-coagulated cheeses".<ref>''The Oxford Companion to Cheese'', 2016. p. 373.</ref> ''Lokopakara'' text dated to the 10th century gives two recipes for coagulated cheeses made from [[water buffalo|buffalo]] milk for making sweets using plants and roots. According to the text, buffalo milk was coagulated using roots of [[amaranth]] plant or leaves of marsh barbel (''[[Hygrophila auriculata]]''); the soft cheese produced in this manner was called ''Haluvuga''. In the second recipe, buffalo milk was coagulated with Indian mallow (''[[Abutilon indicum]]'') or country mallow (''[[Sida cordifolia]]'') and was made into balls for sweets.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ramachandran |first1=Ammini |title=Lokopakara – Part III Recipes |url=https://peppertrail.com/recipes-from-lokopakara/ |website=Peppertrail |access-date=22 September 2012}}</ref> ''[[Manasollasa]]'', a Sanskrit-language text by the 12th-century king [[Someshvara III]], describes ''Kshiraprakara'', a similar sweet food prepared from milk solids after separating boiled milk using buttermilk.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ena Desai |chapter=Gastronomy of Bengal |editor=Lotika Varadarajan |title=Indo-Portuguese Encounters: Journeys in Science, Technology, and Culture |volume=II |year=2006 |publisher=Indian National Science Academy / Centra de Historia de Alem-Mar, Universidade Nova de Lisboa / Aryan Books International |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LfaAAAAMAAJ |page=668|isbn=9788173053023 }}</ref><ref name="Michael2011">{{Cite book |last=Michael Krondl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gN6ySQnUnfwC&pg=PA38 |title=Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert |publisher=Chicago Review Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-55652-954-2 |pages=7–8|quote= "In another recipe he gives directions for a syrup-soaked fritter many modern Indians would recognize. To make it, the cook is told to curdle warm milk by adding buttermilk, then strain it to remove the liquid. (Nowadays this fresh cheese would be called chhana.) The resulting curds are then mixed with a little rice flour, formed into balls, and fried in ghee. Finally, they are soaked in syrup."}}</ref>

Another theory is that like the word itself, paneer originated in [[Persianate]] lands and spread to the [[Indian subcontinent]] under [[Muslim]] rule.<ref name="origin">{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTTxAAAAMAAJ |title=The Technology of Traditional Milk Products in Developing Countries |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |year=1990 |page=169 |isbn=9789251028995}}</ref> Paneer, according to this theory, was developed and moulded to suit local tastes under these rulers, and the [[Delhi Sultanate]] and [[Mughal Empire]] are when paneer as currently known developed. Another theory states that paneer is [[Afghans|Afghan]] in origin and spread to [[India]] from the lands that make up [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="origin"/> [[National Dairy Research Institute]] states that paneer was introduced into India by Afghan and Iranian invaders.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1zs4NzrRWhQC&pg=PA231 |title=Feta & Related Cheeses |first1=R. K. |last1=Robinson |first2=A. Y. |last2=Tamime |publisher=CRC Press |year=1996 |isbn=9780747600770 |page=231}}</ref> Based on texts such as ''[[Charaka Samhita]]'', BN Mathur wrote that the earliest evidence of a heat-acid coagulated milk product in India can be traced to 75–300 CE, in the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]]-[[Satavahana dynasty|Satavahana]] era.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lpMAAAAYAAJ |first=K.V.S.S. |last=Rao |title=Paneer technology — A review |journal=Indian Journal of Dairy Science |volume=45 |publisher=Indian Dairy Science Association |year=1992 |page=281}}</ref> Sunil Kumar ''et al''.(2011) interpret this product as the present-day paneer. According to them, paneer is indigenous to the north-western part of [[South Asia]] and was introduced in India by Afghan and Iranian travellers.<ref name=Kumar11>{{cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Sunil |last2=Rai |first2=D.C. |last3=Niranjan |first3=K. |last4=Bhat |first4=Zuhaib |title=Paneer—An Indian soft cheese variant: a review |journal=Journal of Food Science and Technology |volume=51 |issue=5 |pages=821–831 |publisher=Springer |date=2011 |doi=10.1007/s13197-011-0567-x |quote="People during the Kusana and Saka Satavahana periods (AD75–300) used to consume a solid mass, whose description seems to the earliest reference to the present day paneer" |pmid=24803688 |pmc=4008736}}</ref>

Another theory is that the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] may have introduced the technique of "breaking" milk with acid to [[Bengal]] in the 17th century. Thus, according to this theory, Indian acid-set cheeses such as paneer and chhena were first prepared in Bengal, under Portuguese influence.<ref name="Harlan_2000"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=orHWFRMKf4EC&pg=PA33 |title=India: Food and Cooking: The Ultimate Book on Indian Cuisine |first=Pat |last=Chapman |author-link=Pat Chapman (food writer) |publisher=New Holland |year=2009 |isbn=9781845376192 |page=33}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efOjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |title=Cultures of Milk |first=Andrea S. |last=Wiley |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780674369702 |page=2}}</ref> A type of smoked cheese called [[Bandel cheese]] was introduced by the Portuguese in Bengal, which is distinct from paneer.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tamang |first1=Jyoti Prakash |title=Ethnic Fermented Foods and Beverages of India: Science History and Culture |date=2 March 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-15-1486-9 |page=676 |language=en}}</ref>