While the mango is referred to as the king of fruits, with the Alphonso mango being revered as the king of kings, the 1875 Maclean’s ‘Guide to Bombay’ published in 1875 says that the Mazagon mango was a tad better than the Alphonso. It describes the Mazagon mango as being “pear-shaped” and distinguishable from the other mangoes by a little lump or horn at the narrow end.
Though the Alphonso mango continues to tickle our taste buds, unfortunately the Mazagon mango has been lost to history, perhaps because of the mindless urbanisation in Mumbai that may have seen these trees being chopped down. One can postulate that the ‘Ambewadi’ in Mazagon may have housed this mango grove.
Conservationists and activists fear that a similar fate may await the native or desi varieties of mangoes, which are broadly referred to as ‘raywal’ or ‘payri’ mangoes in Maharashtra. These wild varieties of the fruit have unique tastes, shapes and even names. For instance, ‘dahya’ tastes like curd, ‘chikuya’ has a significant amount of ‘chik’ or turpentine, ‘safarchandya’ is shaped like an apple, ‘bitki’ and ‘bhopli’ are small, round shaped and shaped like a pumpkin respectively. A wild variety of mangoes is also named ‘telsildaracha’ after the princely-era bungalow of a tehsildar at Panhala in Kolhapur district where it was found.
According to the National Mango Database, India has nearly 1,000 varieties. But, only about 20 varieties are grown commercially. Perhaps they can be conserved and documented for an existence beyond journals and books.