Millets confuse people mainly because of the names. The same grain is thinai in Chennai, korralu in Hyderabad, navane in Bengaluru and kangni in Delhi — and shops rarely translate. This is a plain guide to which millet is which.
What counts as a millet
Millets are a group of small-seeded grasses cultivated as cereal crops. They are not one plant but several unrelated ones, grouped together because they grow in similar conditions: hardy, drought-tolerant, short-season, and viable on poor soil where rice and wheat are not.
In India they are usually split into two groups. Major millets — ragi (finger millet), jowar (sorghum) and bajra (pearl millet) — which are widely grown and eaten as flour. Minor millets — foxtail, kodo, barnyard, little, proso and browntop — which are smaller, cooked whole like rice, and were largely abandoned in the post-Green-Revolution decades before returning to shops in the last ten years.
The names, by language
Foxtail millet
Thinai (Tamil) · Korralu (Telugu) · Navane (Kannada) · Kangni or Kakum (Hindi) · Kang (Gujarati and Marathi)
Kodo millet
Varagu (Tamil) · Arikelu or Arika (Telugu) · Harka (Kannada) · Kodra or Kodon (Hindi) · Kodri (Gujarati)
Barnyard millet
Kuthiraivali (Tamil) · Udalu (Telugu) · Oodalu (Kannada) · Sanwa or Samvat (Hindi) · Bhagar or Vari (Marathi)
This is the grain sold in the north as vrat ke chawal or samvat ke chawal and eaten during fasting, which is why it is often the easiest of the minor millets to find.
Little millet
Samai (Tamil) · Sama or Samalu (Telugu) · Saame (Kannada) · Kutki (Hindi)
Finger millet, sorghum, pearl millet
Ragi is kezhvaragu in Tamil, nachni in Marathi and Gujarati, mandua in the north. Jowar and bajra keep roughly the same names across most of India.
Regional naming does overlap and occasionally contradicts — "vari" in Marathi is used for more than one grain depending on where you are. If you're unsure, ask for the English name, which shops increasingly print.
Polished versus unpolished
This matters more than the variety you pick.
Millets have a tough outer layer. Polishing removes it, which makes the grain paler, faster-cooking and longer-keeping — and takes the fibre and much of the mineral content with it. Heavily polished millet is, in nutritional terms, closer to white rice than to the whole grain.
Unpolished millet looks duller and slightly uneven in colour, takes longer to cook, and has a shorter shelf life because the oils in the bran eventually go rancid. Those are the signs you want.
How to tell in a shop: uniform, pale, glossy grain has usually been polished. If a pack doesn't say unpolished, assume it isn't. And a two-year shelf life on a whole grain is telling you something.
What they have in common
All millets are naturally gluten-free grains. They are whole grains when unpolished, carrying the fibre and minerals that refining removes. Beyond that the varieties differ in taste and texture more than most people expect — which is the subject of the next article.
Frequently asked questions
Which millet should a beginner start with?
Foxtail. It behaves most like rice, has the mildest flavour, and is the least likely to be rejected at the table.
Are millets gluten-free?
The grains are. A packaged product made from them is only gluten-free if it was made somewhere that handles no wheat.
Why are they more expensive than rice?
Lower yields, smaller acreage and far less processing infrastructure than rice has.
How should I store them?
Airtight, out of sunlight. Unpolished millets keep six to nine months; in hot or humid conditions, refrigerate.
See our unpolished millets — foxtail, kodo, barnyard and little millet.
General information about food and cooking. Not medical or dietary advice.