Baobab Trees
Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, 4000 years ago
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Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, 4000 years ago
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The Baobab trees in Mandu (and other parts of India) are evidence of an ancient trade connection between Africa and India. Research by Haripriya Rangan and her colleagues shows this link between the two cultures. “The findings from the genetic analysis were enormously exciting on several fronts. First, they showed without doubt that the baobab species in India was indeed Adansonia digitata and had been introduced from Africa. Second, they showed that the baobabs in India were not simply from a single region, but from different regions of origin, of continental Africa. Third, they showed that some of the baobabs in India displayed genetic features that indicated minor mutations or differences from the sampled origin populations in Africa. This finding pointed to a few possibilities: an introduction from some other part of Africa which we had not sampled; an introduction from Africa far back in time to allow small mutations to occur in response to the local environment; or a combination of both,” she says.
– Ananda Swaroop
The baobabs are survivors and still stand. What is lost are the many carefully planted gardens that must have once surrounded the buildings of Mandu. Horticultural heritage is often the most easily lost.
– Swapna Liddle
The fruit from the Baobab tree is locally known as ‘Mandu Imli’ and is a bitter sweet fruit sold like souvenir to the tourists. Metamorphic rocks in various hues, shapes and sizes are also sold as souvenirs. Dinosaur eggs and fossils found in the area date back the history of the area to 6.5 crores. These can be seen in a fossilarium in Mandu.
– Surabhi Sharman
Baobab African trees: ‘Mandu’ The incredible destination is world famous for its amazing baobab African trees with exceedingly thick trunk and gourd like fruit which has an edible pulp called ‘monkey bread’ due to which they (the trees) are also referred to as the monkey-bread trees.
– Nilesh Narayan
Planning in architecture gives birth to a relationship between the structure and nature. They are unwittingly intertwined, visually and contextually As if the fort doesn’t create enough drama already, the magnificent tree provides a surreal context, one that we observe in fantasy tales. It’s imposing, it’s firm and just like the fort, it stands upright, in all its beauty.
– Shradha Badiani