BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
VoL. 14, No. 8 
CamBripGeE, MaAssacuuseTTs, JANUARY 15, 1951 
THE STORY OF PAN CHEWING IN INDIA 
BY 
M. Gowpa’ 
INTRODUCTION 
‘There are so many ways of doing everything, all over 
India.’’ This is particularly true of pan or betel chewing, 
not only in India, but in all the Eastern countries where 
pan has entwined the culture and conventions of the 
people. Even the name pan has acquired a new conno- 
tation in India. It originally meant betel leaf. In modern 
writings and usage, however, pan refers to both betel 
nut and betel leaf; thus in Hindustani pan dena means 
the custom of giving betel nut and betel leaf, and in 
South India tambula kodi conveys the same meaning. 
The origin of its use fades into antiquity and is lost in 
the dim past of the prehistoric periods. 
The chief constituents of pan are betel nut, betel leaf 
and quicklime, the inevitable three apices of the pan 
triangle; Forster calls them ‘‘pan’s trinity.”” The other 
materials used with them are merely ingredients. 
The use of pan, a civility, a hospitality, a convention, 
a habit, and an innocent after-meal breath-sweetening 
practice, has often been treated in sweeping generaliza- 
tions based on partial and imperfect facts. A practice 
and habit that involves over one third of the human race, 
‘Deputy Superintendent, Government Gardens, Lal-Bagh, Ban- 
galore, India. 
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