The global appeal of the 'bathroom fruit'

Constance L Kirker and Mary Newman's book Mango: A Global History is part of the Edible Series, which has featured books on items of food and drink ranging from apple to yoghurt. In Mango: A Global History, Dr Kirker and Dr Newman take their readers on a global tour of the fruit and, in the process, they cover various aspects of the fruit's production, its consumption around the world, and its presence in the life and culture of various regions where the fruit has been cultivated for centuries.

- SNEHA PATHAK

In the introduction, the authors tell readers what every Indian knows: That eating a mango is a "full body experience" and that to savour it, one must get out of one's "comfort zones and get messy." Memsahibs of the Raj referred to mangoes as "bathroom fruit" for precisely this reason.

Evidence suggests that the fruit originated in the Indian sub-continent and has an ancient lineage. It appears to have originated in the Northeast and traces of mango fibre have been found in human teeth in the Harappan valley. The authors trace mentions of the mango in the Vedas and Puranas, the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

The book also shows how mangoes are linked to sacred practices in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. This is visible in the use of mango leaves for auspicious purposes, in the role mango leaves play in Bengali weddings, or in the "mango mala", a South India bridal necklace. In Thailand, the Buddha is often depicted with a mango in his hand.