varieties with him to Greece. With the rise of Buddhism, mangoes came to represent faith and prosperity among the followers of the religion. The exchange of mangoes as gifts among rulers was an act of diplomacy.
The Mughal emperors were fond of mangoes and encouraged its cultivation. In their gardens in Agra, they grew some of the genetically exotic mangoes which bear names like Jahangir, Shah Pasand and Himayuddin. Akbar built a large mango orchard in Darbhanga (Bihar). In Shah Jahan’s time, unique creations like Aam Panna, Aam ka Lauz and Aam ka Meetha Pulao became popular.
No matter what your age or era, mangoes, especially the Indian varieties, can stir up a great passion in people. Such was their popularity that poets, artists and gurus who needed inspiration would turn to this fruit in the olden days. The

Indo-Persian poet, Amir Khusrau, crowned mangoes as ‘nagzha tarin mewa Hindustan’ – the fairest fruit of Hindustan. The 14th century poet Mirza Ghalib was an authority on mangoes, and the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was another mango-connoisseur. He wrote the poem Amer Manjari, depicting his love for the tiny mango blossoms which had the power to perfume a lover’s garden. The Peshwas planted millions of mango trees to show their supremacy.
In April 1937, the British Indian government decided to send Alphonso mangoes to London to sweeten the coronation of King George VI. Thus the King of Fruits met the King of England! In 1953, Alphonso mangoes were shipped again for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Later, it was used to sweeten the diplomatic relationship with the US when the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru met the American President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Soon the gifting of this tropical, good-looking fruit came to be called ‘Mango Diplomacy’.
Being sturdy and adaptable, it is easy to grow mango trees. It grows almost all over the world — in the

Bhavan's Journal,May 15, 2022∎ 31