Sarpir-maṇḍa

Sarpir-maṇḍa (Sanskrit: ) was a type of dairy product, one of five stages of milk described in Hindu and Buddhist texts.

In Buddhist texts

Buddhist texts including the Nirvana Sutra describe five stages of milk as an analogy to stages of purification of the spirit:

Sanskrit Chinese translation English translation 1 kṣīrá 乳 rǔ milk 2 dádhi 酪 lào curd or sour milk 3 návanīta 生酥 shēng sū raw butter 4 sarpís 熟酥 shú sū ghee, cooked cheese 5 sarpir-maṇḍa 醍醐 tí hú purified kumis, ghee, oil condensed on cheese

Milk yields curd; curd yields butter; butter yields sarpis; sarpis yields sarpir-maṇḍa; sarpir-maṇḍa is the best.

Sarpir-maṇḍa has been theorised to be the early form of ghee.

In East Asia

In Chinese Buddhist texts, sarpir-maṇḍa was translated to tíhú (醍醐). The entry for tíhú in Compendium of Materia Medica (1578) quotes various references, the earliest of which was written in the 5th century Liu Song dynasty.:zh:s:本草綱目/菜之二#醍醐菜

The word 醍醐 is pronounced daigo in Japan. The word has been used in Daigo Temple, Emperor Daigo and Emperor Go-Daigo (both of whom named after the temple), and the word daigo-mi (醍醐味), which means a superb flavor.

According to The Japanese Dairy Association, Emperor Daigo encouraged the production of so (酥, the aforementioned návanīta and sarpís), daigo, and other cheese-like products during his reign in the 10th century.

See also Chrism Ghee Whey

References