More than a fruit.

The mango season is underway across India, including Goa.

The mango is native to India and adjoining regions. It is also the national fruit of India, a civilisational motif extending back millennia, appearing in religion, ritual, art, aesthetics, literature, cuisine, and daily life. There are hundreds of cultivars of the fruit across the country, and the overwhelming bulk of the harvest is consumed domestically.

But the mango is not just any fruit. Not merely eaten, it is experienced. Most fruits are one- or two-dimensional. A mango is multidimensional. It unfolds. Juice running down the arm is an integral part of the affair.

Every Indian child carries the memory of mothers feeding mango pulp by hand, and the delightful mess around the lips that follows. And of using stones to bring down mangoes from laden branches, followed by the usual mayhem and scolding at home.

The fruit available in grocery stores in Europe and the USA mostly comes from Brazil and Mexico. The mango was introduced to South America by the Portuguese in the 16th century, carried from Goa through their maritime network linking India, East Africa, and Brazil.