A decade in the past, after I was newly married, I ended by a roadside fruit stall within the South Indian city of Nagercoil close to my in-law’s dwelling to choose up some bananas for a spiritual ceremony. I gawked on the bunches of this nutraceutical fruit, starting from the same old shades of yellow to various hues of crimson and purple.
Every bunch was tagged with an area selection title – proven, chevvazhai, Matti pazzham, and so forth. I had by no means seen such a large number of banana varieties in all my years rising in Hyderabad, the capital of India’s Telangana state, around 1,200km north of Nagercoil. I knew the modest banana merely as aratipandu within the Telugu language (and vaazhaipazham in Tamil and kela in Hindi). However, there have been some 12 to 15 varieties right here in Nagercoil, every with a definite title and function. Suddenly, life appeared easier earlier than marriage, as I acquired indoctrinated into the land of bananas.
Whereas indigenous varieties are cultivated in dwelling gardens throughout India, they develop profusely each domestically and wild in locations like Nagercoil, largely because of the heat and humid tropical weather and fertile, loamy soil situations present in areas abutting the Western Ghats of South India.
The banana is believed as one of many world’s earliest and most cultivated fruits and has traveled far and huge from its humble origins in India and South-East Asia. As we speak, it’s one of many world’s most-consumed fruits, and even throughout these pandemic instances, comforting and easy-to-make banana bread has been trending in the Google searches all over the world.
Historic information points out that Alexander the Nice was impressed with the unique style of the kadali phalam (the Sanskrit title for the banana) and carried the fruit from India to the Center East, the place it was rechristened as banan (an Arabic phrase for finger) by Arab merchants. It later that reached to Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean through the 15th Century, which headed north to Bermuda. From Bermuda, bananas had been shipped to England as novelty fruits through the 17th and 18th Centuries. And in 1835, head gardener of Chatsworth Property in Derbyshire, Joseph Paxton, cultivated and grew a brand new yellow selection and named it musa cavendishii, after his employer’s household title, William Cavendish.
The banana is taken into account treatment for all ills
Regardless of its comparatively small measurement and considerably bland style compared to different varieties, the Cavendish’s uniformity, resistance to illness, and excessive yielding capability have made it the darling number of the Western world. In India, the high-yielding G9 Cavendish selection (from Israel) is now produced commercially throughout the nation; nevertheless, native banana varieties – and their plantain cousins – are cultivated, primarily in India’s southernmost elements. Locals typically sing the reward of sorts like poovan, mondan, and peyan. They are named after the holy Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva individually for their versatility, flavor, and texture.
In India, the banana is considered a treatment for all ills, bodily, and religious . As a baby, the fruit’s slimy, pithy texture when ripe had by no means appealed to me.
As we speak, bananas are extensively thought to have many well-being advantages – a ripened banana is laden with potassium, calcium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and a wealthy supply of carbohydrates and fiber. Nonetheless, in India, they’ve been valued medicinally for 1000’s years. The banana tree is taken into account sacred, and each a part of it’s used, be it the fruit for consumption or the leaf, flower, and bark in medicinal remedies.
Additionally, in Ayurveda, the banana flower and stem are used to deal with diabetes. The tree’s sap (which has astringent properties) is used for illnesses similar to leprosy and epilepsy and insect bites. And as Sreelakshmi defined, psychosomatic problems similar to hypertension and insomnia are handled by a remedy referred to as thalapothichil. The top is roofed in a medicinal paste, after which wrapped with a banana leaf, which is believed to have a chilling impact.
The banana is given a tree’s standing, although it’s technically an herb that produces berries (botanically talking), typically known as fruits.
The banana can be the one fruit discussed within the Pali canon (scriptures central to the Theravada faculty of Buddhism), the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, and types the triad of fruits, together with mango and jackfruit, referred to as mukkani in Tamil Sangam literature.
The banana tree can be related to fertility and bounty. Therefore, in South India, a pair of banana bushes with flowering branches is positioned on both facets of the doorway to a house or venue throughout weddings, relegious festivals, and different particular events. In Bengal, through the Durga Pujo competition, a figurine symbolizing goddess Durga (the Hindu goddess of struggle and female vitality) is made with a banana plant, draped in a yellow saree with a crimson border. This type of goddess is named Kola Bou; the place kola means “banana,” and bou means “woman” in Bengali.
In terms of consuming bananas in India, there are many choices, whether or not ripened or uncooked, to select from. Varieties, just like the simply digestible matti pazzham, are used as child meals. In contrast, others like nendran and rasthali, due to their longer shelf life and decrease water content material, are utilized in each conventional and modern Indian dishes.
“We name the banana ‘kele’ in Konkani [a language spoken in the Konkan region along the Western Ghats], and it’s a staple in our conventional Konkani delicacies,” stated Shantala Nayak Shenoy, who writes a meals weblog referred to as The Love of Spice. There’s an option to indulge most palates and style buds with a banana.”
Uncooked or ripened, fruit or flower, Cavendish or poovan, Indians are spoilt for an alternative on the standard and versatile banana subject. And the extra one explores this nation, the place it’s thought-about sacred, the extra surprises it throws.
Again in Nagercoil, the land of bananas, I now not gawk, however confidently select the rasakadali or Matti pazham, thought-about auspicious, for religious functions. I additionally typically purchase delectable nendran chips by the kilo to eat as a snack. Every chunk tells the story of this city and its banana legacy.
