MANGOES JOURNEY IN INDIA

Whenever we discuss fruits, we can never forget the name mango – ‘The King’. It is really hard to find anyone on this planet who won’t love this fruit in any of its forms. Apart from just eating delicious slices directly, it is used to make a variety of different dishes, ice creams, beverages and its flavour is one of the favourites of all aged people.

In India, the summer months are flooded with these delicious fruits. In India, there are various types of mangoes grown and it is one of the chief producers and exporters in the world.

Have you ever thought about how this fruit came in India? How did it spread to the other parts of the globe? Who carried it to those places? No? So get ready. Today, we are going to discuss the history of mango in India and will tell you various amazing facts about this fruit.

Let’s begin…

There are pieces of evidence about the cultivation of mango in the North-Eastern part of the country about 30 million years ago, along with the regions of Myanmar and Bangladesh. Further, many varieties of mangoes came to the southern part of the country.

It got many names, ‘Amra Phal’ being the first. It was called Aam-Kaay or Maam-kaay in Tamil and later, became famous as ‘Maanga’ in Malayalam. When the Portuguese got introduced to this fruit, they became very fond of it and they took it to the international level with the name ‘mango’ which we still use.

This fruit was so popular that even designations were given based on different varieties of this fruit like the honour  ‘Amrapali’ was awarded to a courtesan of Vaishali. When Alexander entered the country and after fighting very famous battles like with the King Porus, at the time of his return, he carried few types of mangoes to Greece.

At the time when Buddhism was gaining popularity, this fruit became a symbol of prosperity and faith. It was exchanged as gifts among the rulers. Buddhist monks also played an important role in spreading this delicious fruit. They took this fruit to all the places where they travelled.

Many travellers who travelled the country during the ancient time also describes the prosperity of this fruit and helped in popularizing these fruit. Once Alauddin Khilji conducted a feast in the fort of Sivama which included only mangoes and other dishes made of it. Mughals also loved this fruit and there and many stories regarding this. Once Aurangzeb got punished from his own father – Shah Jahan for keeping mangoes for himself. You can understand the craze!

Many ancient writers including Rabindra Nath Tagore, wrote many things regarding its taste, fragrance, praising all the aspects of this fruit. The present-day curved shapes which are available everywhere in India particularly during the months of May to August has become a worldwide famous fruit. There are various types of mangoes from a few very cheap priced to too high quality like Alphonso so that everyone can afford to enjoy the amazing mango.