Badshaah salamat maine buzurgo se suna hai,
Daane Daane pe likha hai Khaane waale ka naam
Dekh raha hoon kisi aam par mere baap dada ka naam bhi likha hai kya?
(Oh emperor, the wise say that each morsel has the name of the person who will eat it, I am looking if any of the trees have the name of my fathers or forefathers etched on it.”)
Many of you might have heard these lines umpteen times. Perhaps what was unheard of, according to Asif Khan Dehlvi-founder and story teller of Delhi Karvan, was that this was a part of the conversation between the mid-nineteenth century poet Mirza Ghalib and the last Mughal ruler Bahadurshah Zafar when both were looking up at a mango tree laden with ripening fruits. The next thing Ghalib knew was a basket full of mangoes delivered to him by the Emperor, the very next day.
Was the above episode a fact or folklore? Well, no one is sure! What everyone is sure about is the Mughal’s love for mangoes. A look at the different royal accounts reveals a surprising fact- the Mughals loved mangoes the way they loved their own children.
This love affair began in 1526 CE when Zahir-al Din Muhammad Babur was invited to Hindustan by Daulat Khan Lodi to overthrow Ibrahim Lodi-the most unpopular ruler of Delhi. A legend, devoid of any historical evidence, says Babur was given this invitation along with a promise of a crate of mangoes on completion of this feat. It’s hard to believe that someone like Babur can be lured with mangoes to invade a kingdom. But given the fact that Mughals loved mangoes immensely nobody really questioned or took this legend with a pinch of salt. His victory against Lodi in the first Battle of Panipat, 1526 CE, established him as the “Emperor of Hindustan”. From a conqueror’s perspective this country and its topography did not entice Babur initially. In his autobiography Baburnama, he writes “Hindustan is a country of few charms, no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk-melons or first-rate fruits, no ice or cold-water, no-good bread.” In it he also reiterates his profound liking for the melons and peaches grown in his homeland, Kabul and a distinctive dislike for all the fruits of Hindustan, even the mangoes. But later on Babur does develop an affinity and has some words of praise for this fruit. “Mangoes, when good, are very good. Taking it altogether, the mango is the best fruit of Hindustan,” he wrote in his autobiography. Another folklore tells another interesting story of Babur needing something unique to convince him to fight Rana Sanga of Mewar (Battle of Khanwa, 1527 CE) and that ‘something unique’ were the mangoes.
Babur’s descendants took mangoes to an altogether different level. The love for mangoes never left his son Humayun. His 15 years of exile after losing the Battle of Kannauj to Shershah Suri in 1540 CE, did not deter him from getting a continuous supply of mangoes delivered to him in secret. A slight deviation from the Mughal lineage was Sher Shah Suri, the Emperor of Sur dynasty. He defeated Humayun in 1539 in the Battle of Chausa and it’s reportedly believed that he named his favourite mango variety “Chausa” to celebrate his victory.
Mangoes achieved an iconic status when it became a figure of Mughal diplomacy. By the mid-sixteenth century Humayun’s son Akbar was so fascinated by the success in the art of mango tree grafting done by the Portuguese in India that he invited them to his court to pass on this skill. Thus, under his kingship , a hundred varieties of mangoes were developed-. a giant leap in the science of Horticulture. He then commissioned the 100,000-tree Lakhi Bagh orchards, about 1,200 kilometers from Delhi where one could see the products of these graftings. By now, as per Ain-i-Akbari and Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri,mangoes had become an obsession with the Mughals. They began keeping a record of the people who gifted them mangoes as part of friendships or peace treaties, its condition, and variety. They noted down the dates too. One such date was 4th October, 1617. Jahangir’s (Akbar’s son) ledger says he was impressed by a ruler who gifted him fresh mangoes on this date.
Even though Mango diplomacy fostered alliances and signing of peace treaties yet, sometimes, it proved tricky in relationships, like in the case of Shah Jahan and his son Aurangzeb. Shahjahan was furious when he was not served with the best variety of mangoes. He was appalled at the disrespect shown to him by his own son. At other times it was used as weapons of flattery. In the Ruqaat-i Alamgiri, a compilation of Aurangzeb’s letters to his son; he mentions that he was sent two baskets of unnamed varieties of mangoes by his son Azam. Azam also asked him to name those varieties. As a Mughal ruler Aurangzeb was not new to sending and receiving mangoes as diplomatic gifts. But these were different. He was instantaneously overwhelmed. He gave those mangoes Sanskrit names Sudhara and Rasnavilas.
Babur noted in his diary that he often felt homesick so had the grapes and melons of his homeland grown here in his “Garden of Eight Paradises’ and it filled his heart with content. He then set about laying riverfront gardens using water and plants in distinct patterns. The enormous structures built during the Mughal times invariably used flowers and mangoes(aami) in its inlays and carvings as the main motif- a very striking feature of the Mughal architecture. “If you look at the Mughal miniature paintings and illustrations, which are quite renowned, you will often see a mango or mango tree in the painting,” says Sonia Wigh, a postdoctoral fellow in history whose research focuses on modern India. “It might not be the focus of the painting. But the mango was so much a part of life that it would be there somewhere.”
The Mughal legacy reached a juncture where once melons were a reminder of home for its founder but it changed to mangoes for his descendants. For the descendants, Hindustan was their birth place, their home. So, any sight, smell or even a picture of mango would take them back in memory. The end of this dynasty and the eventual change of powers reduced the status of the fruit from an empire builder to any ordinary one. So, it can be rightly said the Mughal Dynasty ended wrapped up in all things mangoes!
Bincy Thomas
Bincy was a teacher by profession but now, is a history buff by choice. Being a fitness enthusiast with a keen interest for trekking, she combines this interest with history and sets out exploring lost and forgotten monuments, to gather new insights and information. When she’s not trekking, yoga, meditation and reading takes away her time.