have come across the many translations where "Mamsah" is translated as fruit or as a root vegetable. As I am attaching here.
The original translation As per my belief should be
तां तदा दर्शयित्वा तु मैथिली गिरिनिम्नगाम् ।
निषसाद गिरिप्रस्थे सीतां मांसेन छन्दयन् ।।इदं मध्यमिदं स्वादु निष्टप्तमिद मग्निना ।
एवमास्ते स धर्मात्मा सीतया सह राघवः ।। (वाल्मीकि रामायण, अयोध्या काण्ड, 96, 1 व 2)Having shown to Sita the mountain-river Mandakini and gratifying her with meat, Rama sat on the mountain slope. Righteous Rama was seated in Sita's company and remarked saying "This meat is sacred. This is savoury roasted in fire". (Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodha Kanda 96:1-2)
My question is
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First off, as Sheldon Pollock points out in his translation of Ayodhyākāṇḍa, the two verses you quote in your question have been removed from the Critical Edition of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.
And even if those were present in the original Rāmāyaṇa, medhya and māṃsa together usually mean "fresh or pure meat" and not "pulp made out of fruits and roots":
Translation served by valmiki.iitk.ac.in also uses similar meanings for those words:
Now, to answer your underlying question:
There are several commentaries/commentators of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and one particular commentator, Vaṃśīdhara Śivasahāya, consistently uses fruits and roots instead of meat in his commentary, Śiromaṇi, abbrev. as Cr below.
And the Gita Press translation which you cite in your question appears to follow the Śiromaṇi commentary throughout. One possible reason why Gita Press used this commentary over others is, its founders (Jayadayal Goyandka and Hanumanprasad Poddar) wanted to promote vegetarianism in India and among Hindus.
To illustrate the extent Śivasahāya (Cr) goes to portray Rāma as a vegetarian prince, let's look at this verse:
Now compare with Pollock's notes:
Once again the Gita Press translation follows Cr almost word for word:
Hope this helps :)