Archive

Water tanks and mangoes could cause confusion between Cawasjee Patel and Framjee Cowasjee (though not because Cawasjee is spelt differently in the literature available). The one who had Cawasjee as his first name lived in the 18th century (1744-1799), and even though no vestiges remain of the tank for drinking water he had built in 1775, the locality and road on which it stood continues to be linked to his name — Cawasjee Patel — 250 years later as C. P. Tank. This neighborhood abuts the Bhuleshwar area in central Bombay known for its bustling markets and temples. 

His father Rustomjee Dorabji (also known as Rustom General) had been conferred the title of Patel for heading a body of Kolis and assisting the English to ward off an invasion by the Siddis. The accompanying sanad (deed) had specified that the title could be used by him and his heirs in perpetuity, as specified in Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names: An Excursion into the By-Ways of the History of Bombay City by Samuel T. Sheppard.

There have been times when Cawasjee Patel has been mistaken for Framjee Cowasjee Banaji (1756-1851) in whose name stood the tank opposite Metro that he had reconstructed in 1839. As related in Joint Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay by Preeti Chopra, when the water level in the C. P. Tank had dropped in 1846, Framjee Cowasjee drew up a plan to feed it from a nearby coconut plantation known as mugbhat. "Three wells were sunk here and water was conveyed to the tank through steam machinery that cost Rs 30,000.”  Using an aqueduct, he also arranged for water from C. P. Tank to be carried to two tanks at Duncan Road that were colloquially referred to as Do Tanki (two tanks). 

By the second decade of the 20th century, the malaria epidemic resulted in the municipality ordering the closure of most of the tanks and wells in Bombay (see "Water spirits: angelic and angry,” Parsiana, April 7-20, 2025). At a meeting of the Corporation in April 1915, it was stated that Bai Dinbai Byramji Patel had laid claim to the C. P. Tank site and had expressed her wish to erect a statue of the donor there. The commissioner, as quoted in Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names asserted: "It has always been a public tank and Bai Dinbai has no claim to any ownership. There does not seem any necessity for placing a statue of the original constructor of the tank on the site, as funds would probably not be forthcoming for it but if... the plot is laid out as a garden, it may be called the Cawasjee Patel Garden, and a descriptive tablet may be put up in it. This will be quite sufficient to preserve the constructor’s name.” 

Unfortunately there is no green space in the congested C. P. Tank locality as it stands today; mainly jarring residential and commercial buildings, temple complexes and a traffic roundabout named Kasturba Gandhi Chowk which accommodates a sauchalay (public toilet)! 

Around the same time when C. P. Tank was built, the benefactor was given several villages in Salsette by the East India Company.  Additionally, when the British Government took possession of Thana and Bassein in 1774 he was appointed the Patel of the villages of Montpessier, Charni Bunder, Turambu, Math, Marve, Manori, Versova, Danda, Bandra, Kalyan, Bhimardi, etc, as reported in Parsi Lustre on Indian Soil. As a boat contractor for the East India Company he supplied various kinds of vessels to the government for carrying goods from one bunder (dock) to another. For his services, he was presented with a dress of honor by the then governor William Hornby in 1775.

"It was he who encouraged the Parsis to migrate to Thana where in 1780 he built for them a Tower of Silence and an agiary” that bears his name, stated Parsi Lustre. On the site of the atash dadgah that was established by Cawasjee in 1780 his son Rustamji built a fire temple to house an atash adarian fire in 1829. The city also remembers him with yet another busy street in the Fort area that is named after Cawasjee Patel.  

Memorable mango

On his properties in Thana and elsewhere Cawasjee Patel cultivated a distinctive variety of mangoes which the British referred to as "Bombay mangoes” but have since been named as "Cawasjee Patel mango or Cawasjee Patel amba,” the Marathi word for mango. In 1838, it was Framjee Cowasjee who is known to have sent a basket of this fruit to Queen Victoria in the year of her coronation.

Of the nearly 1,500 varieties of mangoes in India, only a few are named after people. Among the others who have earned this honor are Amrapali, named after the legendary dancer and courtesan, and Alphonso, which pays tribute to a Portuguese general from the 18th century. The distinctive feature of the Cawasjee Patel mango is that the fruit is harvested green but its white, fibreless pulp and small seed makes it an ideal choice for cooking, especially for making jams and preserves. 

Over the years, the popularity of this variety waned and it was no longer available in markets. Last month, thebetterindia.com portal carried a feature on the rare and unusually large Cawasjee Patel mango that is now making a comeback on a farm in Maharashtra. 

When Parsiana  made enquiries with agriculturists in the Dahanu belt, they had not heard of this variety. Being largely a chikoo cultivation belt, they grow the "Rajapuri variety for home consumption and Kesar for commercial purposes,” mentioned Dahanu based Pervez Irani, erstwhile vice president of The Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India. He advised us to contact Sam Wadia who has a mango orchard in Valsad. Although Wadia has around 800 trees with over eight varieties of mangoes, even he had never heard of the Cawasjee Patel amba. His interest being piqued, within a few hours he shared information that he had gleaned on this rare species from Dr Bhavin Mehta, professor at Navsari Agricultural University who has done his PhD in plant pathology. Wadia is now on the lookout for a sapling of the Cawasjee Patel amba to propagate on his farm.

One of the links shared by Mehta sourced an article in the book Fruits Of The Warm Climate by Julia Morton (www.hort.purdue.edu). It stated, "Grafted plants of the ‘Bombay Green,’ so popular in Jamaica, were brought there from India in 1869 by the then governor, Sir John Peter Grant, but were planted in Castleton gardens where the trees flourished but failed to fruit in the humid atmosphere. Years later, a Director of Agriculture had budwood (the portion of a stem or branch with vegetative buds used in propagation of new trees) from these trees transferred to rootstocks at Jamaica’s Hope Gardens. The results were so successful that the Bombay Green was subsequently commonly planted on the island. 

"The author brought six grafted trees from Jamaica to Miami in 1951 and, after they were released from quarantine, distributed them to the Subtropical Experiment Station in Homestead, the Newcomb Nursery, and a private grower, but all succumbed to the cold in succeeding winters. The fruit is completely fiberless and freestone (a stone fruit in which the stone is easily separated from the flesh when the fruit is ripe) so that it is frequently served cut in half and eaten with a spoon. The seed is pierced with a mango fork and served also so that the luscious flesh that adheres to it may be enjoyed as well.”

Another compilation, Fairchild’s Quick Guide to Mangoes of the World by Richard J. Campbell and Noris Ledesma, describes the Bombay variety as "a traditional variety from Jamaica. As the name would suggest, it originated from seeds brought to the island by early immigrants from India, and the fruit and tree are similar in shape, taste and habit to the ‘Paheri’ of India.” Another source mentioned that at the 23rd International Mango Festival in 2015 at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida, USA, there were four large mangoes of the Cawasjee Patel variety on display.

The Tropical Acres Farms in Florida has been cross-cultivating different mango varieties. As reported on their website, one of their efforts resulted in a mango that is from the United States Department of Agriculture [USDA, that holds germplasms (the genetic material that can be transmitted)] of 309 mango varieties in Miami, and is "thought to be a hybrid of the Cawasjee Patel and the Piri (also known as Bombay or Raspuri). The fruit is oval shaped and develops orange skin color as it ripens. We obtained budwood from the USDA in 2021 and placed it on several different stumps. One of the grafts fruited in 2022, and the fruit had a nice eating quality, seeming to be classically flavored but requiring more time and evaluation to learn more about it.” 

Though the Cawasjee Patel mango is no longer found in most orchards across Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to thebetterindia article it is preserved as germplasm in several important research centers in India. These include the Fruit Research Station in Vengurla, the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth in Ahilyanagar, and the Laldhori Botanical Garden near the Girnar mountains, managed by Junagadh Agricultural University.

"Preserving the germplasm of traditional mango varieties is the key to biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and food security,” Dr Anant Morade, fruit scientist at the National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management in Baramati was quoted in their write-up. As reminded by him, "These mangoes aren’t just crops. Many are tied to local festivals, folk medicine and family traditions. Conserving them means safeguarding cultural memory. And it must go beyond labs. We need on-farm conservation and strong community-driven efforts.” So also do we need to retain the memory of a pioneering Parsi, Cawasjee Patel.