Chili peppers originated in the Americas. Their cultivars are now grown around the world, because they are widely used as food and as medicine.  From Mexico, at the time the Spanish colony that controlled commerce with Asia, chili peppers spread rapidly into the Philippines and then to India, . They were quickly incorporated into the local cuisines.
Indian cooking has multiple uses for chilis, from simple snacks like bhaji, where the chilis are dipped in batter and fried, to complex curries. Chilis are dried, roasted and salted as a side dish for rice varieties such as daddojanam ("dadhi" curd, "ojanam" rice in Sanskrit) or thayir sadam (curd rice) or daal rice (rice with lentils). The soaked and dried chillies are a seasoning ingredient in recipes such as kootu. It is called "mirapa" in telugu.