Crystallized sugar (khanda)
Azúcar cristalizado (khanda)
- Date
- c. 350 · confidence low
- Place
- Ganges plain, Bihar, India
- Credited to
- Unknown (Gupta India)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Boiling cane juice until supersaturated and letting it crystallise produced a solid sugar that could be stored and transported. The words 'sugar' and 'candy' derive from the Sanskrit sharkara/khanda.
Maurya-era texts already distinguish syrups and sugars (guda, khanda, sharkara), and the Greeks speak of 'honey from reeds' in 326 BCE; widespread crystallisation is usually placed in the Gupta period.
What it led to
- sugar trade towards Persia and the Islamic world
- cane plantations in the Mediterranean and the Americas
- confectionery and preserves
Built on
- domesticated sugarcane (New Guinea)