Paneer (), also known as ponir (), is a fresh acid-set cheese common in the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) made from full-fat buffalo milk or cow milk. It is a non-aged, non-melting soft cheese made by curdling milk with a fruit- or vegetable-derived acid, such as lemon juice. Etymology The word paneer entered English from the Hindi-Urdu term panīr, which comes from Persian () 'cheese', which comes from Old Iranian. Armenian (), Azerbaijani , Turkish and Turkmen , all derived from Persian , also refer to cheese of any type. History The origin of paneer is debated. Ancient Indian, Afghan-Iranian and Portuguese-Bengali origins have been proposed for paneer. Vedic literature refers to a substance that is interpreted by some authors, such as Sanjeev Kapoor, as a form of paneer. According to Arthur Berriedale Keith, a kind of cheese is "perhaps referred to" in Rigveda 6.48.18. However, Otto Schrader believes that the Rigveda only mentions "a skin of sour milk, not cheese in the proper sense". K. T. Achaya mentions that acidulation of milk was a taboo in the ancient Indo-Aryan culture, pointing out that the legends about Krishna make several references to milk, butter, ghee and dahi (yogurt), but do not mention sour milk cheese. Another theory is that like the word itself, paneer originated in Persianate lands and spread to the Indian subcontinent under Muslim rule. Paneer, according to this theory, was developed and molded to suit local tastes under these rulers, and the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire is when paneer as currently known developed. Another theory states that paneer is Afghan in origin and spread to India from the lands that make up Afghanistan. National Dairy Research Institute states that paneer was introduced into India by Afghan and Iranian invaders. Based on texts such as Charaka Samhita, BN Mathur wrote that the earliest evidence of a heat-acid coagulated milk product in India can be traced to 75-300 CE, in the Kushan-Satavahana era. Sunil Kumar et al. interpret this product as the present-day paneer. According to them, paneer is indigenous to the north-western part of South Asia, and was introduced in India by Afghan and Iranian travellers. Manasollasa, a Sanskrit-language text by the 12th century king Someshvara III, describes Kshiraprakara, a similar sweet food prepared from milk solids after separating boiled milk using a sour substance. Another theory is that the