Living in the Now | Mrinal Chatterjee | 30.6.23
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Mango
As the rainy season sets in, the mango season in India is gets over. And that is a pity. One can get mango throughout the year, thanks to the cold storage, but they do not have the taste and aroma of the fresh mangoes.
Mangoes find mention in the Vedic and Buddhist texts and
the Ashokan inscriptions and the records of foreign travellers like Hiuen Tsang.
The earliest name given to the mango was Amra-Phal. It is
also referred to in early Vedic literature as Rasala and Sahakara, and is
written about in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and the Puranas, which condemn
the felling of mango trees.
Legend has it that the Buddha was presented with a mango
grove so he could rest under the shady trees. Mangoes in fact were much a part
of the ruling class and were held in high esteem since ancient times.
Alexander the Great arrived in India and fought the famous
battle with King Porus. When it was time for him to return to Greece, It is
believed that he carried the mango back to Macedonia from the court of
Porus.
Megasthenes and Hsiun-Tsang, the earliest
writer-travellers to ancient India, wrote about how the ancient Indian kings,
notably the Mauryas, planted mango trees along roadsides and highways as a
symbol of prosperity.
In the medieval period, Alauddin Khilji was the first
patron of the mango and his feast in Sivama Fort was a real mango extravaganza
with nothing but mangoes in different forms on the lavish menu. Next came the
Mughal Emperors, whose fondness for the mango is legendary. The obsessive love
for mango was, in fact, the only legacy that flowed untouched from one
generation to another in the Mughal dynasty.
It is interesting to note the vivid and extraordinarily
detailed picture of the mango found in Mughal testimonies. The Baburnama, considered
the first autobiography in Muslim literature written by the Mughal emperor,
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur presents a thorough narrative of the fruit. Emperor
Jahangir in his memoirs the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri
says about the mango, “Of all fruits I am very fond of mangoes.
The Mughals relished their favourite addiction, with
Jahangir and Shah Jahan awarding their khansamahs
for their unique creations like Aam Panna, Aamka Lauz and Aam Ka
Meetha Pulao, a delicate mango dessert sold all through the summer in
Shahjahanabad.
There are beautiful Mughal miniature paintings that dwell
exclusively on the mango fruit. These paintings display lush green mango trees
laden with mangoes on which are perched birds while a peacock and a peahen
stroll leisurely beneath.
The Peshwa of the Marathas, Raghunath Peshwa, planted 10
million mango trees as a sign of Maratha supremacy. Folklore has it that it was
a fruit from these trees that eventually turned into the famous Alphonso, arguably
the king of mangoes. The variety’s name is derived from Alfonso
de Albuquerque, an outstanding military figure. It is also called
‘hapoos’.
Kesari from Gujarat, Dashehari from Lucknow, Chausa from
Uttar Pradesh, Badami from Karnataka, Langra from Varanasi, Himsagar from West
Bengal, Amrapalli from Odisha are some of the most popular varieties of mangos
in India.
As the mango season ends, I am looking forward to the next
summer- just for the juicy mangoes. I found a couplet in Hindi on internet
expressing the exact feeling:
Aam se hame itna pyar hai
Garmi jaldi aa jaye, intejar hai.
I love the mango so much
That I wish the summer to come early.
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https://www.odisha.plus/2023/06/mango/?fbclid=IwAR3wnDNhgHM2pgnJwh5p1FOdcFsGnCj9mfu4s3NRAE8C91LrH2t1nWBJJGo
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