As summer set in, when the first bag of lush, bright mangoes arrived home, the faces of children and elders alike lit up with unmatched joy. The real test began when one had to wait—unbearably long—for the mangoes to be soaked in water, then refrigerated before we devoured them cold and heavenly in Delhi’s blazing afternoon sun. The first bite of the season was invariably a nostalgic and unforgettable moment, setting the mood for the season to come. Reading Sopan Joshi’s deftly written Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango was like taking that first bite of the summer fruit all over again.
Joshi, who is adept in both English and Hindi and has multiple books and articles to his name, shares a special bond with, and deep affection for, mangoes. He traces his obsession back to frequent visits to mandis and nurseries and days spent gardening with his equally fruit-mad uncle. The book is a tribute to the fruit by an aficionado and research nut, an untiring journey into the mango maze that leads him into the contours of history, mythology, ecology, and international diplomacy, and to the source: the evolution of the fruit, its eaters, its markets.
Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango
Aleph Book Company
Pages: 432
Price:Rs.799
“Researching, reading, and writing about it are just more ways to enjoy the mango,” writes Joshi, calling India “a mango-obsessed country [that] actually knows little about its obsession!”
The first rule of the mango is that it changes not only names as it moves from one region to another but also its taste, colour, size, and fragrance, depending on the soil, weather, plantation techniques, and so on. Even without these geographical differences, the same variety of the fruit may be called by different names in different regions: the Langda of Varanasi becomes Doodhiya/Dhulia Malda in Patna, Laingda in West Bengal’s Malda, and Kapooriya in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“The Michael Jackson of fruits”
Mangoes are a mark of a city’s honour, with the “my-variety-or-yours” game providing not only a badge of honour but maintaining a keen gamesmanship between regions and consumers. One thing that emerges from Joshi’s expeditions is that these mango wars unite people in their love for the fruit even if they are divided in their vote on which variety is the best. And, despite the north India-south India debate or the West Bengal-Bihar rift, the mango itself always wins uncontested. “It is the Michael Jackson of fruits,” a retired schoolteacher from Bengal tells Joshi.
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The book has stories from subject experts, historians, producers, growers, distributors, and fruit connoisseurs. To say that Joshi is thorough would be an understatement. He traces the historical value of the fruit in Indian culture in elaborate detail. Evidence from Vedic as well as non- and post-Vedic cultures suggests that mangoes were present in abundance and valued in equal measure. From the Indus Valley Civilisation to tribal communities, from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism to the Mughal Empire, the mango has long been a part of the Indian fabric.
Joshi’s book is replete with references to the fruit in Hindu mythology and in medieval and modern history: the mango flower is believed to be one of the five arrows of Kamadeva (a legend states that he used one to wake Siva); battles have been lost to mangoes, either because one ate too many or was denied any. The fruit is embedded in customs and rituals: brides in Amravati, Maharashtra, still return to their maternal homes in the mango season as part of a festival called maher vashin; daughters-in-law from both Hindu and Muslim landlord families plant mangoes on their ancestral lands in Lucknow as part of another festival.
Mangifera indica: A Biography of the Mango by Sopan Joshi | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement
Literature and the visual arts are not far behind. From the poetry of Kalidasa, Ghalib, and Tagore to painting, sculpture, and classical music, the mango has been an evergreen symbol of desire, spring, fertility, even sacrifice. From fruit to shade to timber for cremation, it is a part of India’s weft and weave.
Mango diplomacy
Can “mango diplomacy” be far behind? India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, gifted a case of mangoes to the writer George Bernard Shaw and to US President John F. Kennedy in 1961; he even “handed out lessons on eating the mango” to the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. P.V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued the trend. Manmohan Singh used the mango in India-US relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, shared his mango-eating methods in a famous interview with the actor Akshay Kumar in 2019. Joshi writes: “The mango is a gesture of detente in statecraft…. Gifts of mangoes have influenced geopolitics, history, and the maps of empires.” In fact, India is surrounded by the motif: Bangladesh has the mango in its national anthem, Pakistan is “as mango-mad as India”, and Sri Lanka has its own “proud mango traditions”.
While Mangifera indica is a celebration of the king of fruits, Joshi goes beyond its charm to ask the hard questions: Where did the mango really come from? “Did humans domesticate the mango? Or, as the author Michael Pollan might ask, did the mango domesticate us?” The answer, Joshi finds out, leans towards the latter: “[i]t was the plants that began hitting on animals!” The evolutionary tricks of the fruit and the “theatre of life” around it are discussed at length in the book.
““Did humans domesticate the mango? Or, as the author Michael Pollan might ask, did the mango domesticate us?” ”Sopan Joshi
There is more. One section is dedicated to the risks and threats the mango industry faces today—from post-Independence land ceiling laws that made way for indifferent “absentee landlords” to the ever-growing pesticide problem that not only risks consumer health but also affects India’s export potential.
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Despite its ubiquity, its unabashed love story with Indians, and its economic flourish, the mango has seen a considerable loss in cultural value, which Joshi’s book diligently attempts to preserve and uphold. Perhaps one day the Madanotsava (a festival celebrated for over a month before the arrival of spring and the mango) of ancient and medieval times will return and occupy the kind of cultural space that Japan’s Hanami festival celebrating the cherry blossoms does.
Joshi’s passion for mangoes is contagious, but so is his journalistic instinct. Mangifera indica is thus as much the work of a fellow mango-lover as of a mango researcher, making this quite a one-of-its-kind fruitography.
Nandini Bhatia is a books and culture writer. Instagram: @read.dream.repeat
