Mangoes & Meanings: Histories, Ecologies and Cultural Imagination

Each mango carries many meanings, holding within it many summers. In one, the tree is planted; in another, it is watered and tended to until it bears fruit. The summer that follows is when memory begins to take shape- the recognition of a favourite variety, from the sweetness of Alphonso, the sharpness of Totapuri, to something deeply local like the Mankurad mango. With over 1,500 varieties across India, there is always room for different tastes and for many stories.

The mango is both rooted and restless. It belongs deeply to this land, yet has travelled widely. It appears across festivals, rituals, kitchens, markets, and myth, while also existing within ecologies shared with birds, beetles, and ants. Passing through many hands over centuries, it has been shaped through practices of grafting, cultivation, and experimentation, gathering meanings along the way.

With the season comes an atmosphere: trees heavy at their edges, the hum of cicadas, and markets saturated in yellow. The mango is deeply familiar; everyone carries a ‘mango story’, even those who don’t like it. It moves easily between kitchens and orchards, between the everyday and the occasional. 

To speak of the mango is to speak of plurality. It is the “king of fruits,” yet also aam—the common, the shared—circulating in memory, conversation, and longing well beyond its season. As Mirza Ghalib wrote, “There are only two conditions for mangoes: they should be sweet, and there should be plenty of them.”

Participating Artist

Invited Artist:

Akhlaq Ahmad (Shabbu), Asawari Gurav, Avantika Shrivastav, Bisaji Gadekar, Chaitali Morajkar, Datta Naik, Donna, Harshada Kerkar, Indrajit Khambe, Kalidas Mhamal, Lenin Dani Raj, Madhvi Srivastava, Malavika Kundu, Malini Saigal, Ali monis naqvi, Vedika Parikh, Prabhakar Duwarah, Niharika Chauhan, Pakhi sen, Pandurang Naik, Paresh Churi, Pradeep Naik, Ramdas Gadekar, RamSingh, Sanket Mayekar, Ahasthya A, Gaurav, Shefali Upadhyay, Siddharth Kerkar, Sripad Gurav , Subodh Kerkar and Uriel Orlow 

Artist Participated through Open call:

Arun Kumar (Arunkumar Marimuthu), Girisha Bohra, Pattabi Raman, Sanjeev Kumar, Isha Malaviya, Jyoti Kaloya, Mithun Dasgupta, Mohit Knack, Mona Sharma, Nandini Chakraborty, Nishtha Manchanda, Priyamvada Mishra, Sanskriti Shrivastava, Shyamli Singbal, Sunil Shirodka, Vaishnavi Nai, Zahra and Ishani Kadu 

Exhibition Highlights

• 8400+ people visited guided tours
• 140+ students experienced guided tours
• 200+ guided tours were conducted in total.

This exhibition is an independent production by the Museum of Goa.