And in 1835, head gardener of Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire, Joseph Paxton, cultivated and grew a new yellow variety and named it musa cavendishii, after the family name of his employer, William Cavendish. From Bermuda, bananas were shipped to England as novelty fruits during the 17th and 18th Centuries. It later reached Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean during the 15th Century, and then headed north to Bermuda. Historical records mention that Alexander the Great was impressed with the exotic taste of the kadali phalam (the Sanskrit name for the banana) and carried the fruit from India to the Middle East, where it was rechristened as banan (an Arabic word for finger) by Arab traders. Today, it’s one of the world’s most-consumed fruits, and even during these pandemic times, comforting and easy-to-make banana bread has been trending on Google searches around the world.

The banana is believed to be one of the world’s earliest and most cultivated fruits and has travelled far and wide from its humble origins in India and South-East Asia. While indigenous varieties are cultivated in home gardens across India, they grow profusely both domestically and wild in places like Nagercoil, largely due to the warm and humid tropical climate and fertile, loamy soil conditions found in regions abutting the Western Ghats in South India. Owing to its nativity, perennial abundance and affordability, it’s the go-to fruit for nearly every occasion, and the banana tree in its entirety is deeply woven into the country’s cultural fabric. The banana has been India’s most versatile and revered fruit from time immemorial.

Now and later banana