Brown rice in Hindi, Tamil and other Indian languages

The table below gives every name IFCT 2017 records for brown rice. Seven regional names appear across seven languages — Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam — while six more languages show a dash, meaning IFCT gives no name for them. The spellings are IFCT's own. Two rows sit above the languages: the English food name, Rice, raw, brown, and the botanical name Oryza sativa, shared by every rice in the tables.

Source: IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN) local-names list. — means no name recorded in the source.

IFCT 2017 names the food 'Rice, raw, brown', and its botanical name is Oryza sativa — one species for every rice on the shelf, from basmati to red rice. The brown rice meaning in Hindi is chawal, the plain word for rice: IFCT 2017 gives the same Hindi word for brown and for milled rice, and no separate Hindi name for the brown grain.

The names run region by region, and where IFCT 2017 gives a brown rice meaning in Gujarati, Punjabi or Assamese, the table shows exactly that spelling.

• Hindi: Chawal — the everyday word for rice, used in IFCT for brown and milled rice alike.
• Gujarati: Kathai chokha.
• Punjabi: Bhura choul.
• Assamese: Matia rangar chaul.
• Telugu: Dampudu biyyam.
• Tamil: Arisi.
• Malayalam: Kuthari.

IFCT 2017 gives no name for brown rice in six languages: Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Kannada, Urdu and Sanskrit. This page leaves those gaps empty rather than fill them from elsewhere.

Brown, red and black rice are all whole rice — each keeps its bran — and white rice is the same grain with the bran polished away. Brown describes a degree of milling, not a variety; red and black rice are varieties whose bran is pigmented, red-tinted in one and dark in the other. They are different products on the shelf, not different names for one grain; the red rice vs brown rice comparison separates two of them in detail.

IFCT 2017 records the grain without growing regions, so this page does not rank them. COWBERRY's own product page states that its brown basmati comes from the fertile alluvial plains of Uttarakhand and Punjab, organically grown without synthetic chemicals and minimally processed to keep the bran layer. For the basmati side of the family, the basmati rice guide carries the names and detail; the brown rice recipes roundup turns the grain into meals; and our brown rice guide carries the nutrition.

What is brown rice?

Brown rice is rice with the husk removed but the bran layer left on; white rice is that grain milled further, until the bran is polished off. IFCT 2017 gives brown rice more fibre and minerals than milled rice. IFCT 2017 lists it as 'Rice, raw, brown' under the botanical name Oryza sativa.

How is brown rice made?

Paddy is husked to take off the inedible outer husk, and the grain stops there — no polishing, so the bran layer stays on. White rice goes one more step, and polishing takes the bran with it. The dietary guidelines ask for at least half of cereals and other grains as whole grains, minimally polished, for adequate nutrients and fibre.

What is brown rice made of?

Like every rice grain, it is built of bran, germ and endosperm under an inedible husk. Brown rice keeps all three, because only the husk comes off in milling. White rice is the same grain with the bran polished away.

What is the difference between brown rice and white rice?

The bran. Both come from the same paddy; brown rice stops at husking, white rice goes on to polishing. That one step is where the fibre and minerals part ways, and it is why brown rice cooks longer. The full side-by-side, with the nutrition numbers, is on the brown rice vs white rice page.

Which brown rice is best?

There is no single best: what matters is whole, unpolished grain from a pack you can read — where it was grown and how it was processed. Check for the bran intact, and cook it as our guide to cooking brown rice explains.

Is brown rice the same as red rice?

No. Both are whole rice with the bran kept, but red rice is a variety whose bran is pigmented red, while brown rice is rice that has been husked and not polished. They are neighbours on the shelf, not the same grain; the red rice vs brown rice page compares them number by number.