Experimental Form, No. ❸
April 13, 2023
The Malabar Mango
The Malabar strip is strewn with magnificence: the magnificence of the Malabar Mango.
Edited by Malini Narayan and Pradyumna Sapre
Parrot Perched on a Mango Tree with a Ram Tethered Below, ca. 1630 – 1670, attributed to Golconda, opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Image Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Often, before the Mango can be plucked and savored by the common man, it is feasted upon by the parrots and parakeets of the Malabar strip.
Our parrots, the messengers of divinity, (for they alone—in the entire animal kingdom—can utter the human word, recite the Vedas, and guide man’s folly) soar down from their homes to take a bite of a delicacy more luscious than any of the feasts of cornucopia present in the heavens.
And back to their masters they bring not the mango that shines atop the tree, but the leaf which modestly hangs in the shadows of the magnificent Malabar Mango.
Kamadeva on his Parrot Mount, with a Wielded Bow and Arrow, ca. 1800s, opaque watercolor on paper. Image Credit: Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet
The leaf, pierced onto the spear of the amorous Kama Deva: Cupid of the Indian Subcontinent, travels the length and breadth of the land, entangling, commoners, and the gods alike, in the unbreakable ropes of love and destiny.
The mango leaf is capable of sparking a love so pure that it triumphs on the battlefields of human emotion—vanquishing infatuation, jealousy, and lust.
Shielded by the purity of Kama’s love, Vishnu lounges on the edge of the Mango leaf, observing, intently, his altered avatar succumb to the alluring decadence of the Malabar Mango.
Hanuman Carrying the Mountain, ca.1850, Rajasthan, opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Image Credit: Christie’s LondonHanuman, ca. 1700, probably Nurpur, Northern India, watercolor and gold and silver on paper, from the Coomaraswamy Collection. Image Credit: Museum of Fine Arts, BostonThe valiant Hanuman, King of the Vanaras (monkeys), was seduced by the pulchritude of the Malabar Mango, and mistook the magnificence of the blazing sun for that of the Mango. Embarking on his journey fueled by infatuation and lust, Hanuman burned himself in the brilliant heat of the sun, unable to separate rationale and his burning desire to taste the Malabar Mango.
Aware of the dangers of the enchanted fruit, Vishnu: preserver of the universe, maintains karmic balance with the help of his conspirators: the mango leaves.
Tantrika Painting of a Cross-Legged, Meditating Rishi Aligning his Chakras (the nexus of metaphysical and biophysical energy that reside in the human body), date unknown, opaque watercolor on paper. Image Credit: Wellcome Collection
Rishis and brahmins from all over follow in his footsteps on this path of recluse from the Malabar Mango, enshrining their homes with garlands of the mango’s leaves, which promise protection from desire, lust and gluttony.
However, in this fated quest, the basal human race has failed to succeed. So seductive is the Malabar Mango, they were unable to resist its temptations.
With the universe conspiring against them in this age of transition, they fi nd themselves crippled at the feet of the mighty Mango, to be active catalysts in the dawn of conflict and sin (the kali yuga) in the universe, enslaving humans to their passions and desires.Tree with Crows sitting on and underneath it, ca.1850, Bundi, opaque watercolor on paper. Next page illustrates the back of the painting with a folktale narrated on it. Image Credit: Victoria and Albert Museum
The mango tree is now an object of the utmost desire. Not for its leaves, the warders of evil and mediators of karmic balance, but for the Malabar Mango itself: the source of all voracity.
The Mango tree is now shielded and cloaked with a murder of crows. The crow, encapsulating the memory of our ancestors, flies down to repeat his treacherous mistakes. Upon seeing the mischief of the Mango, and then his sun-eyed children attempting to guide the world out of the age of the dark, he sits, perched upon the tree, picking at its leaves, but not once approaching the magnificent Mango that rests in his presence. Finally resisting the temptation of the Mango, the crow reminds us to regain control of our passions, lest we become shackled by gluttony and sensory pleasure.
Parakeet, ca. 1880, Patna, watercolor on paper, from an album of Company School Botanical Studies by Bahadur Lal II. Image Credit: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The parrot, messenger of the divine, is still seen pecking at the Malabar Mango. On his divine mission, he takes one lustrous bite from each Mango in the Malabar to leave it unworthy of the venal human; reminding him to abandon the misguided quest for the Malabar Mango.