Brief history of mango

The wild mango originated in the foothills of the Himalayas in India and Burma. The first group of people to spill the beans and initiate trade of the fruit were peripatetic Buddhist monks four or five centuries BC.

The mango was cultivated in Java at least as early as AD 900-1100, when the temple at Borobudur was built and faced with carvings of the Buddha in contemplation under a mango tree.

The Chinese traveler Hwen Tsang, who visited India during the first half of the seventh century AD, brought the mango home with him to China.

One theory holds that mangoes first reached Africa by way of Persia in the tenth century. Traders from Portugal introduced mangoes to Brazil in the 1700s and to Barbados in 1742. From there, mangoes then began popping up all over the world.

The cultivation of the fruits began in Mogul, India, where the fruit is still considered sacred and is thought to have aphrodisiac effects. In the 16th century, a special technique employing grafting was developed for propagating the mango.

As early as the sixteenth century, the name ‘mangas’ was used for the mango in the Greek Work, ‘Colloquies on Simples and Drugs of India’. The earliest mentioned of mango tree, Mangifera indica, which means ‘the great fruit bearer’, is found in Hindu scriptures dating back to 4000 BC.

The mango is a member of the Anachardiaceae family which includes poison ivy, cashews, and pistachios. It is also known as manga, mangga, mangot, mangou, and mangue in other parts of the world.

The mango comes in over 50 varieties, ranging in color from greenish, yellowish, to reddish, often tinged with purple, pink, orange-yellow, or red.
Brief history of mango