Ugadi Pachadi is the special preparation made during the Ugadi Festival in Andhra Pradesh. It is made by mixing fresh tamarind, Jaggery, fresh mangoes , neem flowers, coconut, bananas.
The unique mixture gives a very special taste and it is called Shadhruchulu meaning the combination of six tastes. The sweetness of jaggery, the sourness of tamarind, bitterness of neemflower, spice of chilly and the taste of raw tender mango gives a very special taste.
This Ugadi pachadi is also important as it signifies the various aspects of life like bitterness representing sad feelings, sweetness representing happy feeling, chilly representing anger, salt representing fear, tamarind representing disgust and raw mango representing the surprise element of life.
Overall it teaches us that life is not just sweet or sour but a mixture of various elements. Every human being will have to pass through all these emotions at some point of time and we should not get attached to any particular feeling and accept everything as God’s gift and move ahead in life.
Ugadi Pachadi is also helpful from the scientific point of view that it helps to cleanse the system and prevents many diseases. It is mainly helpful in countering the Kapha dosha which usually increases during this season.