A History of Agriculture in India v2.c69.s1: Fruits
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c69.s1
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Fruits
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The Mango. The mango (ambah) is one of the fruits peculiar to Hindustan. Hindustanis pronounce the b in its name as though no vowel followed it; this being awkward to utter, some people call the fruit (P) naghsak as Khwaja Khusrau does: Naghsak-i-mā (var. khwash) naghs-kun-i-bustān, Naghstarin mewa (var. na’ mat)-i-Hindustan
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‘Mangoes when good are very good; but many as are eaten, few are first-rate. They are usually plucked unripe and ripened in the house. Unripe they make excellent condiments, are good also preserved in syrup. Taking it altogether, the mango is the best fruit of Hindustan. Some so praise it as to give it preference over all fruits except the musk-melon, but such praise outmatches it. It resembles the kārdi peach. It ripens in the rains. It is eaten in two ways: one is to squeeze it to a pulp, make a hole in it, and suck out the juice, —the other, to peel and eat it like the kārdi peach. Its tree grows very large and has a leaf somewhat resembling the peach-tree’s. The trunk is ill-looking and ill-shaped, but in Bengal and Gujrāt is heard of as growing handsome.
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The Plantain. ‘The plantain (Sans. kela; Musa paradisiaca) is another. Its tree is not very tall, indeed is not to be called a tree, since it is something between a grass and a tree. Its leaf is a little like that of the amān-garā but grows about two yards long and nearly one broad (1.8 m × 0.9 m). Out of the middle of its leaves rises, heart-like, a bud which resembles a sheep’s heart. As each petal of this bud expands, there grows at its base a row of 6 or 7 flowers which become the plantains. These flowers become visible with the lengthening of the heart-like shoot and the opening of the petals of the bud. The tree is understood to flower once only. The fruit has two pleasant qualities: one that it peels easily, the other that it has neither stone nor fibre. It is rather longer and thinner than the egg-plant (Solanum melongena). It is not very sweet; the Bengal plantain (i.e. chini-champa) is, however, said to be very sweet. The plantain is a very good-looking tree, its broad, broad, leaves of beautiful green having an excellent appearance.
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The Tamarind. The anbli (H. imli, Tamarindus indica, the tamarind) is another. It has finely-cut leaves (leaflets), precisely like those of the (T) buia, except that they are not so finely-cut. It is a very good-looking tree, giving dense shade. It grows wild in masses too.
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The Mahua. The (Beng.) mahua (Madhuca indica) is another. This also is a very large tree. Most of the wood in the houses of Hindustanis is from it. Spirit is distilled from its flowers; not only so, but they are dried and eaten like raisins, and from them, thus dried, spirit is also extracted. The dried flowers taste just like kishmish; they have an ill-flavour. The flowers are not bad in their natural state; they are eatable. The mahua grows wild also. Its fruit is tasteless, has rather a large seed with a thin husk, and from this seed, again, oil is extracted.
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The Khirni. The mimusops (Sans. khirni; Manilkara kauki) is another. Its tree, though not very large, is not small. The fruit is yellow and thinner than the red jujube (Elaeagnus angustifolia). It has just the grape's flavour, but a rather bad after-taste; it is not bad, however, and is eatable. The husk of its stone is thin.
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The Jaman. The (Sans.) jāman (Syzygium cuminii) is another. Its leaf, except for being thicker and greener, is quite like the willow's. The tree does not want for beauty. Its fruit is like a black grape, is sourish, and not very good (Fig. 22).
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The Kamrak. The kamrak (Averrhoa carambola) is another. Its fruit is five-sided, about as large as the 'ain-ālu and some 3 inches (7.6 cm) long. It ripens to yellow; gathered unripe, it is very bitter: gathered ripe, its bitterness has become sub-acid, not bad, not wanting in pleasantness (Fig. 22).
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The Jack-fruit. The jack-fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is another. This is a fruit of singular form and flavour; it looks like a sheep's stomach stuffed and made into a haggis and it is sickeningly sweet. Inside are filbert-like stones which, on the whole, resemble dates, but are round, not long, and have softer substance; these are eaten. The jack-fruit is very adhesive; for this reason people are said to oil mouth and hands before eating it. It is heard of also as growing not only on the branches of its tree, but on trunk and root too. One would say that the tree was all hung round with haggises (Fig. 25).
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The Burhal. The monkey-jack (Artocarpus lakoocha) is another. The fruit may be of the size of a quince (var. apple). Its smell is not bad. Unripe it is singularly tasteless and empty thing; when ripe, it is not so bad. It ripens soft, can be pulled to pieces and eaten anywhere, tastes very much like a rotten quince, and has an excellent little austere flavour.
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FIG. 18. The wooden Persian wheels with baked earthen water pots are still in use in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. This photograph shows a Persian wheel near Khajuraho, Chhattarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, 1978.
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FIG. 19. Charsa, a leather bucket pulled by bullocks with the aid of a pulley, is still in use for irrigation in Gurgaon District of Haryana, 1978.
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FIG. 20. *Bagh-e-wafa*, the garden planted by Babur near Kabul in which he planted oranges and pomegranates. On the top sugarcanes and plantains are depicted. These were introduced by Babur from Lahore. From the *Babur-nama*. (Courtesy: British Museum, London)
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FIG. 21. *Bagh-e-wafa*. On the top a wooden Persian wheel is shown. In the garden oranges, pomegranates, plantains, cypresses and *keora* are depicted. An illustration to the *Babur-nama*. Mughal, 1597. Artist: Bhagwan.
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FIG. 22. An illustration of jaman (Syzygium cumini) and kamrak (Averrhoa carambola) from the Babur-nama. Mughal, 1597.
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FIG. 23. Paniala (Flacourtia jangomas) and chironji (Buchanania lanzan) trees. From the Babur-nama. Mughal, 1597.
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FIG. 24. Sadaphal (Citrus maxima) or chakotra on the top. Below is amarphal (C. aurantium). From the Babur-nama. Mughal, 1597.
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FIG. 25. Illustrations of jack-fruit (*Artocarpus heterophyllus*), keora (*Pandanus odoratissimus*) and oleander (*Nerium indicum*). From the Babur-nama. Mughal, 1597. (Courtesy: National Museum, New Delhi)
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*The Ber.* 'The lote-fruit (Sans. *ber*, *Ziziphus mauritiana*) is another. It is of several kinds: of one the fruit is larger than the plum; another is shaped like the Husaini grape. Most of them are not very good; we saw one in Bandir (Gualiar) that was really good. The lote-tree sheds its leaves under the Signs *Saur* and *Jauza* (Bull and Twins), burgeons under *Saratan* and *Asad* (Crab and Lion) which are the true rainy-season,—then becoming fresh and green, and it ripens its fruit under *Dalu* and *Haut* (Bucket, i.e. Aquarius, and Fish).
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*The Karaunda.* 'The *karaunda* (*Carissa carandas*) is another. It grows in bushes after the fashion of the *chika* of our country, but the *chika* grows on mountains, the *karaunda* on the plains. In flavour it is like the rhubarb itself, but is sweeter and less juicy.
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*The Paniyala.* 'The *paniyala* (*Flacourtia jangomas*) is another. It is larger than the plum and like the red-apple unripe. It is a little austere and is good. The tree is taller than the pomegranate's; its leaf is like that of the almond-tree but smaller (Fig. 23).
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*The Gular.* 'The (H) *gular* (*Ficus glomerata*) is another. The fruit grows out of the tree-trunk and resembles the fig, but is singularly tasteless.
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*The Amla.* 'The *amlā* (*Emblica officinalis*, the myrobalan-tree) is another. This also is a five-sided fruit. It looks like the unblown cotton-pod. It is an astringent and ill-flavoured thing, but confiture made of it is not bad. It is a wholesome fruit. Its tree is of excellent form and has very minute leaves.
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*The Chirunji.* 'The (H) *chirunji* (*Buchanania lanzan*) is another (Fig. 23). This tree had been understood to grow in the hills, but I knew later about it, because there were three or four clumps of it in our gardens. It is much like the *mahua*. Its kernel is not bad, a thing between the walnut and the almond, not bad! rather smaller than the pistachio and round; people put it in custards and sweetmeats.
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*The Date-palm.* 'The date-palm (*Phoenix dactylifera*) is another. This is not peculiar to Hindustan, but is here described because it is not in those countries (Tramontana). It grows in Lamghan also. Its branches (i.e. leaves) grow from just one place at its top; its leaves (i.e. leaflets) grow on both sides of the branches (midribs) from neck to tip; its trunk is rough and ill-coloured; its fruit is like a bunch of grapes, but much larger. People say that the date-palm amongst vegetables resembles an animal in two respects; one is that, as, if an animal's head be cut off, its life is taken, so it is with the date-palm; if its head is cut off, it dries off; the other is that, as the offspring of animals is not produced without the male, so too with the date-palm, it gives no good fruit unless a branch of the male-tree be brought into touch with the female-tree. The truth of this last matter is not known to me. The above-mentioned head of the date-palm is called its cheese. The tree so grows that where its leaves come out is cheese-white, the leaves becoming green as they lengthen. This white part, the so-called cheese, is tolerable eating, not bad, much like the walnut. People make a wound in the cheese, and into this wound insert a leaflet, in such a way that all liquid flowing from the wound runs down it. The tip of the leaflet is set over the mouth of a pot suspended to the tree in such a way that it collects whatever liquor is yielded by the wound. This liquor is rather pleasant if drunk at once; if drunk after two or three days, people say it is quite exhilarating. Once when I had gone to visit Bari, and made an excursion to the villages on the bank of the Chambal-river, we met with people collecting this date-liquor in the valley-bottom. A good deal was drunk; no hilarity was felt; much must be drunk seemingly, to produce a little cheer.
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The Coconut Palm. The coconut palm (*Cocos nucifera*) is another. An Arab gives it Arabic form and says *nārjīl*; Hindustan people say *nālīr*, seemingly by popular error. Its fruit is the Hindinut from which black spoons are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut the coconut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third, a nothing, easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad.
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The Toddy Palm. The (Sans.) *tāṛ* (*Borassus flabellifer*), the palmyra-palm, is another. Its branches (i.e. leaves) also are quite at its top. Just as with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor *tāṛī*, it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard (0.9 m) along its branches (i.e. leaf-stems) there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindi characters on them after the fashion of account rolls.
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Citrus Fruits. The orange (Ar. *naranj*, *Citrus aurantium*) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindustan. Oranges grow well in the Lamghanat, Bajaur and Sawad. The Lamghanat one is smallish, has a navel, is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurasan and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kabul from the Lamghanat, which may be 13-14 *yīghāch* (65-70 miles; 105-113 km) while the Astarabad orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 *yīghāch*. The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwaja Kalan once said to me, "We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000.” It had been always in my mind that the word nāranj was an Arabic form; it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawad says nārang.
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The lime (Beng. līmū; C. aurantiifolia) is another. It is very plentiful, about the size of a hen’s egg, and of the same shape. If a person poisoned drink the water in which its fibres have been boiled, danger is averted.
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The citron (H, turunj; C. medica) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajauris and Swadis call it bālang and hence give the name bālang marabbā to its maramlade (marabbā) confiture. In Hindustan people call the turunj bajauri. There are two kinds of turunj: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghanat; the other, that of Hindustan and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawi melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange. Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a larger leaf than the orange.
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The sangtāra (C. reticulata) is another fruit resembling the orange (naranj).
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The large lime which they call (H) gal-gal in Hindustan is another fruit resembling the orange. It has the shape of a goose’s egg, but unlike that egg does not taper to the ends. Its skin is smooth like the sangtāra; it is remarkably juicy.
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The (H) jānbīrī lime (Citrus limon) is another orange-like fruit. It is orange-shaped and, though yellow, not orange-yellow. It smells like the citron (turunj); it too is deliciously acid.
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The (Sans.) sadā-fal (phal) (C. paradisi) is another orange-like fruit (Fig. 24). This is pear-shaped, colours like the quince, ripens sweet, but not to the sickly-sweetness of the orange (nāranj).
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The amrd-fal (Sans. amrit-phal) (C. aurantium) is another orange-like fruit (Fig. 24).
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The lemon (H, karnā; C. limon) is another fruit resembling the orange (nāranj); it may be as large as the gal-gal and is also acid.
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The (Sans.) amal-bid is another fruit resembling the orange. After three years (in Hindustan), it was first seen today. They say a needle melts away if put inside it, either from its acidity or some other property. It is as acid, perhaps, as the citron and lemon (turunj and līmū).