Know the German botanist who gave us some of the sweetest mangoes

PATNA: Very few people know that a German botanist, Charles Maries, had developed some exclusive varieties of mangoes in Bihar which were planted at private orchard of the erstwhile Maharaja of Darbhanga.

Some of the surviving varieties are “Durga Bhog” (red- orange in colour), “Lakshmeshwar Bhog” (green and golden yellow in colour), “Shah Pasand” and “Sundar Prasad” (golden yellow and red in colour).

Maries lived in Darbhanga from 1882 to 1898 till the death of the ertswhile Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh. These mangoes can still be found in the private orchard of the erstwhile Maharani of Darbhanga at her Darbhanga residence, “Kalyani Niwas” or in the villages of Sarisab-Pahi and Ranti.

The pulp of “Sundar Prasad” is white in colour and very sweet with mild fragrance. These mangoes are early varieties which mature in June. They are all fleshy with no “resha”.

Then there is a very late variety known as “Bhopali”, a small, bright red coloured mango which matures in late July. “These mangoes are different from traditional varieties as they ripen from near the seed towards skin which is just opposite the traditional varieties and thus have a longer shelf-life,” says Tejkar Jha a close associate of erstwhile Raj family.

The marvellous garden of Darbhanga Raj’s Anadbagh was planned and laid by Maries. “It consisted of several hundred trees and thousands of flowers. The garden contained 20 varieties of sandalwood trees, “Rudraksha” trees, virmillion trees, besides other exotic plants,” Jha told TOI.

Virmillion and “Rudraksha” trees can be found in Darbhanga’s Kalyani Niwas garden even today. After 1898, Maries went to Gwalior and became the chief garden superintendent. He died in 1902. In 1882 Maries became superintendent of gardens to the Maharajas of Darbhanga.

Documents available with TOI suggest that earlier Maries (1851-1902) was employed by the Chelsea nursery man Sir Harry Veitch moving in various parts of Japan and China during 1877-1879.

Maries’s work “Cultivated Mangoes of India” was never published, and the Royal Botanic Garden archives at Kew (London) contain his manuscripts and also a volume of his drawings of brightly coloured mangoes.

Charles had left England before 1881 to take up employment in India and in 1882, he was recommended by Sir Joseph Hooker to the post of superintendent of the gardens of the Maharajah of Darbhanga, where he laid out the very extensive grounds which surround the palaces.

He subsequently entered the services of the Maharajah Scindia of Gwalior, and again laid out the palace gardens. He remained superintendent of both the palace gardens and the Gwalior state gardens until his death on October 11, 1902.

While working in India, Maries became an expert on mangoes, studying the texture, flavour, colour, history and location of mangoes that grew in cultivation.