India, Feb. 27 -- "A female elephant rubs against the white koothalam flowers,

That have blossomed on dark green shrubs,

Looking like white herons perched on the verdant foliage,

Her skin is dotted by pollen of the flowers, as she grazes on the millets

Before sleeping sweetly."

These lines of verse from the Sangam age, written about 2,000 years ago, provides lyrical evidence, that we - man and beast - have been eating millets for a long time. More proof comes from archaeobotanical studies in the Indus Valley digs, from the Vedas, the epics, and from poetry and cookbooks through the ages.

Indeed, according to the Famine Commission Report, released after one of the worst famines to strike India, most Indians in the late 1800s still at...