F or all its entertainment value, the North-South mango debate is the noise of two players arguing loudly when the match is taking place elsewhere. Bihar and West Bengal are even more taken with their mangoes. As Mumbai and Delhi have gained importance, becoming centres of political and financial might, Kolkata and Patna have lost out.
Their elites do not have a comparable all-India voice and presence. But they have numerous fine mango varieties, even if the rest of India is clueless about them. The only rival in fame to the Langda of Varanasi is the Langda of Digha, a Patna suburb.
Here, they do not call it the Langda but the Doodhiya/Dhulia Malda. (Lesson in variety names: in West Bengal’s Malda, the same variety is called Laingda; in eastern Uttar Pradesh, it is called Kapooriya, a name also used for other varieties in other regions.) Like so many fine varieties, the Doodhiya Malda does not go to the market; connoisseurs go to the orchard and buy it right there at any price the grower quotes: I’ve heard `1,300 per kilogram east of Patna is Bhagalpur, where you get the flavourful Zardalu, a slender and delicate variety.
If you keep travelling along the Ganga’s south bank, you go past several centres of horticulture. There’s Pakur, a Jharkhand town with numerous old orchards; the mangoes here include fine mangoes developed from courtly patronage as well as heirloom varieties of forest-dwelling tribes. Northwest of here is Malda, a major centre of mango cultivation.
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