History of tea in India

The cultivation and brewing of tea in India has a long history of applications in traditional systems of medicine and for consumption. The consumption of tea in India was first clearly documented in the Ramayana (750-500 BC). For the next 1000 years, documentation of tea in India was lost in history. Records re-emerge during the first century AD, with stories of the Buddhist monks Bodhidharma and Gan Lu, and their involvement with tea. Research shows that tea is indigenous to eastern and northern India, and was cultivated and consumed there for thousands of years. Commercial production of tea in India did not begin until the arrival of the British East India Company, at which point large tracts of land were converted for mass tea production.

Today, India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, though over 70% of the tea is consumed within India itself. A number of renown teas, such as Darjeeling, also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands, and has evolved to one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation, and all other facets of the tea trade in India is controlled by the Tea Board of India.

Ancient India and the Ramayana

Tea cultivation in India has somewhat ambiguous origins. Though the extent of the popularity of tea in Ancient India is unknown, it is known that the tea plant was a wild plant in India that was indeed brewed by local inhabitants of different regions. [History of Tea http://www.coffee-tea-etc.com/tea/history]

The first recorded reference to tea in India was in the ancient epic of the Ramayana, when Hanuman was sent to the Himalayas to bring the Sanjeevani tea plant for medicinal use. [The Ramayana and Tea http://www.finjaan.com/indian-tea.html]

The Singpho tribe and the Khamti tribe also validate that they have been consuming tea since the 12th century.Harvcoltxt|Karmakar|2008]

The influence of Bodhidharma

Indian stories credit the creation of tea as known in the modern sense to Bodhidharma (ca. 460-534), a monk born near Madras, India, and the founder of the Ch'an (or Zen) sect of Buddhism. [Tea History http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Lifestyle/History%20of%20Tea.htm] Interestingly, ancient Japanese tales credit the origin of tea to Bodhidharma as well. [All About Tea http://www.lcy.net/tea/ch1.php]

Stories from this era also document the Chinese monk Gan Lu, whose family name was Wu-Li-chien. These stories explain that Gan Lu traveled to India during the Later Han dynasty, A.D. 25-221, to pursue Buddhistic studies. The stories document that upon his return to China, he took with him seven tea plants which he planted on Meng Mountain in Szechwan. This story was later supported in an allegory on tea in the Ch`a P`u published long afterward, through which tea was first brought to imperial attention. [History of Chai http://www.geocities.com/dipalsarvesh/chai.html] [Book "All About Tea" http://www.lcy.net/tea/ch1.php]

Dutch exploration

The next recorded reference to tea in India after the 12th century dates to 1598, when a Dutch traveler, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, noted in a book about "the Indians ate the leaves as a vegetable with garlic and oil and "boiled the leaves to make a brew"." [The Origins of Indian Tea http://www.teamuse.com/article_000803.html]

The same year, another reference to tea in India was recorded, by a different group of Dutch explorers. [Weisburger & Comer in Harvcolnb|Kiple|Ornelas|2000|p=715]

Early British surveys

In an 1877 pamphlet written by Samuel Baildon, and published by W. Newman and Co. of Calcutta, Baildon wrote, "...various merchants in Calcutta were discussing the chance of imported China seeds thriving in Assam, when a native from the province present, seeing some tea said, 'We have the plant growing wild in our jungles.'" It is then documented that the Assamese nobleman, Maniram Dutta Barua, (also known as Maniram Dewan) showed British surveyors existing fields used for tea cultivation and wild tea plants growing in the Assamese jungle. [Origin of Chai http://www.geocities.com/dipalsarvesh/chai.html]

East India Company

In the early 1820s, the British East India Company began large-scale production of tea in Assam, India, of a tea variety traditionally brewed by the Singpho tribe. In 1826, the British East India Company took over the region from the Ahom kings through the Yandaboo Treaty. In 1837, the first English tea garden was established at Chabua in Upper Assam; in 1840, the Assam Tea Company began the commercial production of tea in the region, run by indentured servitude of the local inhabitants. Beginning in the 1850s, the tea industry rapidly expanded, consuming vast tracts of land for tea plantations. By the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea producing region in the world. [Adivasis in Assam http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/may/soc-assamadi.htm]

Writing in "The Cambridge World History of Food" Harvcol|Kiple|Ornelas|2000|pp=715-716, Weisburger & Comer write:

The tea cultivation begun there [India] in the nineteenth century by the British, however, has accelerated to the point that today India is listed as the world's leading producer, its 715, 000 tons well ahead of China's 540, 000 tons, and of course, the teas of Assam, Ceylon (from the island nation known as Sri Lanka), and Darjeeling are world famous. However, because Indians average half a cup daily on per capita basis, fully 70 percent of India's immense crop is consumed locally.

Modern tea production in India

India was the top producer of tea for nearly a century, but recently China has overtaken India as the top tea producer due to increased land availability.Harvcoltxt|Sanyal|2008] Indian tea companies have acquired a number of iconic foreign tea enterprises including British brands Tetley and Typhoo. India is also the world's largest tea-drinking nation. However, the per capita consumption of tea in India remains a modest 750 grams per person every year due to the large population base and high poverty levels.

"The Cambridge World History of Food" Harvcol|Kiple|Ornelas|2000|pp=715-716, writes:

In general, even though India leads the world in tea technology, the methods employed to harvest the crop vary with the type of tea and terrain. Fine-leaf tea is hand plucked, and hand shears are used on mountain slopes and in other areas where tractor-mounted machines cannot go. A skilled worker using hand shears can harvest between 60 to 100 kg of tea per day, whereas machines cut between 1,000 and 2, 000 kg. The latter, however, are usually applied to low grade teas that often go into teabags. The tea "fluff" and waste from processing is used to produce caffeine for soft drinks and medicine.

Discrepancies on the origins of tea in India

It is evident that Western accounts of the history of tea in India and Eastern and Indian accounts differ not only in minor details, but in major facts as well. Although most scientific research does not differ over the regions to which wild tea plants are indigenous (Southeast Asia, India, China, and Indo-China), accounts differ over when tea was cultivated in India.

Traditional Indian, Chinese, and Japanese literature and documentation shows that tea was known of and cultivated by the time the Ramayana was written (750-500 BC). Accounts of indigenous tribes in India also show that these tribes have been consuming tea for centuries - perhaps longer. European accounts of tea in India, however, contradict many of these statements; early British records claimed that tea was introduced to India b the British, though other records, such as the Baildon pamphlet, describe the native peoples of Assam as already cultivating the tea plant.

Historians are currently researching the issue to determine a conclusive timeline of tea in India. The issue is likely to remain divided in the near future, however.

Notes