National Mango Day 2023: What poets from Amir Khusro to Ghalib and Munawwar Rana wrote in praise of mangoes

Poets from Ghalib to Akbar Allahabadi were writing poems and letters requesting friends to send them mangoes from different parts of India - Ghalib is thought to have tasted most Indian varieties of this king of fruits. (Image: Canva)

For centuries, Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan ‘Ghalib’ (1797-1869) has been the man to quote for any sigh of love, longing, ecstasy and agony. But not many know that beyond his love for words and his beloved, every summer, Ghalib longed for only one thing – mangoes. He walked mango orchards, wrote letters to friends and patrons requesting baskets of mangoes and even wrote a long masnavi (a series of couplets in rhythmic pairs) detailing the attributes of the mango, which, many believe, was born 4,000 years ago somewhere in what is now the Indo-Myanmar region.

Mujhse poochho, tumhen khabar kya hai

Aam kea agey neyshakar kya hai

(Ask me! For what do you know?

a mango is far sweeter than sugarcane…).

-         Mirza Ghalib in Dar sifat e Ambaah (The Attributes of Mangoes)

Ghalib certainly was not the first one to mention mango in his writings. Early Sanskrit texts mention mango as amra. Chinese traveller Hsuen-Tsang (632-645) is credited with being the first person to bring mango to the notice of people outside India. Ain-e-Akbari (1590) talks in detail about the qualities of mango and Mughal emperor Akbar (1556-1605) is said to have planted an orchard of 100,000 mango trees in Darbhanga (Bihar) and called it Lakh Bagh. Emperor Jahangir in his memoir Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri calls mango his favourite fruit: “Of all fruits I am very fond of mangoes”.

Sufi poet Amir Khusro (1253-1325) celebrated mangoes in his poetry calling the fruit fakhr-e-gulshan (pride of the garden); his most-quoted ode being:

Sakal ban phool rahi sarson, ambva phootey, tesu phule

koel boley dar dar, gori karat shingar

(The mustard blooms in every field, mango buds snap open, the tesu blooms, the koel sings from every branch… fair women put make-up).

Also read: Mangoholic! Zepto fulfills mango orders worth Rs 25 crore; Alphonso tops list

For eons, Urdu poets have sung paeans to the national fruit of India. But it was Ghalib’s love for mangoes that is the stuff of legends. The poet is said to have written 63 letters in Urdu and Persian to his friends in Delhi, then Calcutta and Madras talking of mangoes' history and exhorting them to send the fruit from their garden. The story goes that Ghalib had tasted almost all the mango varieties grown in India, a fact drawn from mention of several mango varieties in his letters. Some mangoes even from the orchard of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, who had bestowed the title of Mirza Nosha on Asadullah Baig Khan ‘Ghalib’. That’s how the poet came to be known as Mirza Ghalib.

Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921), the poet who borrowed his pen name from the city that he lived in was also a mango connoisseur. In a letter to his friend Munshi Nisar Husain, requesting him to send some mangoes during the season, Allahabadi wrote:

Naama na koī yaar kā paiġhām bhejiye

is fasl meñ jo bhejiye bas aam bhejiye…

maalūm hī hai aap ko bande kā address

sīdhe Allahabad mire naam bhejiye

(Do not send any letter/missive from a friend,

This season only send mangoes…

You know my address

Sent them in my name to Allahabad).

His friendship with Pakistani poet Allama Iqbal (1877-1938) was legendary and they often exchanged notes – and baskets – of mangoes. Once when Allahabadi sent a basket of Langra mangoes to Iqbal in Lahore, the latter expressed gratitude with a couplet:

Asar hai teri aijaz e masihaee ka ae Akbar

Allahabad se Langra chala, Lahore tak pahuncha.

(Akbar, this is the miracle of your messiah-like healing powers. The lame travelled from Allahabad and has reached Lahore)

-         Allama Iqbal in a letter to Akbar Allahabadi

Munawwar Rana (1952-), a contemporary Urdu poet, wrote:

Insaan ke hathon ki banayi nahin khatey

Hum aam ke Mausam main mithai nahin khatey

(I do not eat what is made by mere mortals

In the season of mango, I do not eat sweets).

So did, Saghar Khayyami (1938-2008):

Aam teri ye khush nasibi hai

Warna langron pe kaun marta hai

(Mango it is your good luck

Otherwise who loves the lame).

Ghalib was right about mangoes. Aur dauayiae kias kahan, jane sheerin mein mithas kahan (What else can we do with first the imagination? Mango is sweeter than the best in life, nay, even life itself).

How key mango varieties got their names

•  Alphonso: Named after Afonso de Albuquerque, a military expert who helped establish Portuguese colonies in India.

•   Langra: The mother tree of Langra still stands in Varanasi. Story has it that the owner was lame, hence the mango variety was named Langra.

•   Dusseheri: Takes its name from the Dusseheri village near Lucknow where the 300-year-old original Dusseheri tree still stands.

•   Chausa: At the Battle of Chausa (1539), Emperor Sher Shah Suri triumphed over Humayun, Babur’s son. To honour his victory over Humayun, Suri gave the name Chausa to a particular variety of mango.

•   Sindoora: Gets its name from the vermillion red colour of the fruit.

•  Malgesh: In Portuguese, Malgesh literally means ‘difficult to digest’. This mango variety is also known as Malgesta, Malgessa, Malgueso and Malgess.

•  Bishop: Also known as Bispo, Bishop takes its name from the large belly of a bishop.

•  Hilario: Hugely popular in North Goa, the original Hilario tree was in the garden of one Hilario Fernandes of Siolim in the Bardez taluka and hence the name.

•  Mussarat: Cultivated mainly in North Goa, Mussarat or Monserrate de Bardez is named after the Bardez taluka where it originated.

•  Banganpalle: It originated in the erstwhile princely state of Banganapalle, in present-day Andhra Pradesh and remains the most produced cultivar in the state.

•  Dudhiya Malda: Mainly grown in the Digha region near Patna (Bihar), the mango gets its name from the fact that it was traditionally irrigated with milk (dudh).

• Panchadara Kalasa: Originating in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, this variety derives its name from the Telugu words panchadara (sugar) and kalasa (pot).

Also read: Health benefits of eating mangoes: Why the King of Fruits is good for more than just your tastebuds