Paratha is a flatbread that originated in the Indian subcontinent. It is usually made with whole-wheat flour, pan fried in ghee / cooking oil, and often stuffed with vegetables, especially boiled potatoes, radish or cauliflower and/or paneer(Indian cheese). A paratha (especially a stuffed one) could be eatensimply with a blob of butter spread on top but it is best served withpickles and yoghurt, or thick spicy curries of meat and vegetables.Some people prefer to roll up the Paratha into a "pipe" and eat it withtea, often dipping the Paratha into the tea.

The paratha can either be round, square or triangular. In theformer, the stuffing is simply mixed with the kneaded flour and theParatha is prepared like the roti, but in the latter two, the Peda(ball of kneaded flour) is flattened into a flattened shape, thestuffing is kept in the middle and the flatbread is now closed aroundthe stuffing like an envelope. The two variants differ in the fact thatwhile the former is like a thick (in terms of width) version of the Roti with filling inside; the latter two, have discernible soft layers if one "opens" the crispier shell layers.

The Paratha has a social connotation too. The significantly higherexpenditure and effort in preparing the Paratha when compared with thedaily Roti means that the Paratha is usually prepared as a special item, or for important guests.

The paratha was conceived in ancient north India but it is unclearwhich particular north Indian cuisines actually inspired it. Its originis likely to have been a result of several influences (Sindhi, Punjabi,Garhwali, Bihari, Bengali and so on). Regardless of its origins, itsoon became popular all over South Asia. All south Indian states havetheir own versions of the ubiquitous paratha, the most popular being"Kerala Paratha," also called Kerala Porotta. The Kerala Paratha is popular all over India so it can be said that the humble paratha has come full circle.

Indian immigrants took this dish to Malaysia, Mauritius (where it is known as farata) and Singapore, resulting in variations such as roti canai and roti prata. In Myanmar (Burma), where it is known as palata, it is eaten with curries or cooked with either egg or mutton, or as a dessert with white sugar. Htat ta ya, literally 'a hundred layers', is a fried flaky multilayered paratha with either sugar or boiled peas (pè byouk). Paratha in Trinidad and Tobagodiffers from the south Asian paratha in that it is generally thinnerand larger. In Trinidad and Tobago it is commonly called "buss up shut"("burst-up shirt"), especially by non-Indo-Trinidadians.