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Food and agriculture
LifestyleFood & Drink

Why mangoes are the ‘king of fruits’ in India and form an intrinsic part of country’s culture

  • Found in India’s religion, art, poetry and literature, mangoes were introduced by the Portuguese – who came to India in the 15th century – to others
  • India is the largest producer of the fruit, growing more than 40 per cent of the world’s mangoes, with at least 1,000 varieties

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A worker unloads mangoes from a truck at a fruit market in Jammu, India. The mango is an intrinsic part of India’s culture, found in religion, art, poetry and literature. Photo: Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Bhakti Mathur

Emperors have lusted after it. Poets have penned couplets extolling its virtues. A nation of a billion people eagerly awaits its seasonal arrival. Exotic and colourful, with hues that vary from golden to saffron to tender green, it’s the regal and luscious mango.

The national fruit of India, the mango – or aam in Hindi – is loved across the country by rich and poor alike. The start of summer heralds the much-awaited harvest season, from April to July, with the fruit bringing relief of sorts from months of blistering heat.

“Mangoes remind me of lazy summer holidays at home,” says 43-year-old IT consultant Asha Bhavnani, a Hong Kong resident who grew up in India.

“My favourite childhood memories are plucking mangoes dangling enticingly from the branches of mango trees, cutting them and eating them raw with salt and pepper.”

Varieties of mangoes displayed during the Mango Festival at Dilli Haat, an open-air food plaza and craft bazaar in New Delhi, India. Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images
Varieties of mangoes displayed during the Mango Festival at Dilli Haat, an open-air food plaza and craft bazaar in New Delhi, India. Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images

Rashmi Singhal, a 47-year-old artist who grew up in the city of Bhilai in India and now lives in Hong Kong, remembers picnics in her grandfather’s orchard.

“Mangoes would be plucked and put in buckets of cold water and eaten by hand,” she says. “We would make a small incision at the top of the mango, squeeze the fruit gently with our hands and suck at the deliciously cold, sweet juice. We would then pull the skin away from the flesh with our teeth and feast on the pulp until only the stone, the guthli, was left, which we sucked dry. The juice would trickle down from our chins to our wrists and was licked off in delight.”

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