July i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



13 



INDIA THE HOME OF THE TEA-PLANT. 



Doubts liave been expressed in the l;i.st few years as 

 to the accuracy of the general belief that the teaplaut 

 had its home in China. 



It must be admitted to bo rather late in the day now 

 to advance theories as to the nativity of a pl.int wliose 

 cultivation has been carried on for centuries. At the 

 same time there will be nothing lost by looking iuto 

 such records as txist, to see what information can be 

 obtained on the subject. 



Theorists are always eminently convincing to them- 

 selves ; so in the present afe, I know one individual 

 who feels quite sure — no matter how general or ani lent 

 be the belief to the contrary — ihat India is the natural 

 home of tlie tea-pl.ant. 



Ball, in hie exhaustive and valuable work, the cuUlv- 

 atioii awl manufacture of tea, sajs (p. 15), "It may be here 

 proper to remark that on the authorities of certain 

 Japanese authors, a doubt has been raised liy the Dr. 

 Von Siebold, an intelligent l:otanitt some years resident 

 in Japan, as to tlie tea-plant being indigenous in China. 

 All are agreed tliat it is of exotic growth in Japan, 

 and was intro:luced into that country from China in 

 the sixth century, agreeably to K;empfer, or the ninth 

 century, (which seems more probable) according to 

 Von Siebold." 



The early history of the tea-plant is sur- 

 rounded b^' the cloudy legends and mythological 

 jarratives of the imaginative Chinese. One writer 

 says: — " The origin of the use of tea, as collected from 

 the works of the Chinese, is traced to the fabulous 

 period of their history. The earliest authentic ;ic- 

 count of tea, if anything so obscure and vague can 

 be considered authentic, is contained in ti:e She King, 

 one of the classical works of high antiquity and 

 veneration amongst the Chinese, and compiled by their 

 renowned philosopher and moralist, Confucius. In 

 this treatise, (Kiien Fang Pu), in the article "The 

 Ancient History of Tea," an absurd story is related of 

 the discovery of this tree in the Tsin dynasty. In 

 the reign of Tuen Ty, in the dynasty of Tsin, an old 

 woman was accustomed to pioceed every morning at 

 daybreak to the market-place, carrying a small cup of 

 tea in the palm of her hand. The people bought.it 

 eagerly ; and yet from the break of day to the close 

 of evening, the cup was never exhausted. The 

 money received, she distributed to the orphan 

 and the needy beggar frequenting the highways. 

 The people seized and confined her in prison. At 

 night she flew through the prison windauL.with her 

 bttle vase in her hand." 



Another (legendary) veraiou of the origin of the 

 tea-plant, is, that in or about the year of grace 510, 

 an Indian iiriuce and religioui devotee named Dliarma, 

 third son of King Kosjusva, imposed upon himself, 

 in his wanderings, the rather inconvenieJit penance 

 of doing without sleep. The little Chinese narrative 

 says that the Indian gentleman (who must have 

 differed vastly from his countrymen of the present 

 day), got on very comfortably f^^r some years ; until 

 all at once he gave up, and had forty winks on a 

 mountain-side. Upon awakening, Dharma was so 

 grieved to find that he could not move about for 

 years without going to sleep, that he pulled out 

 his eye-lashes and flung them on the ground 

 Coming round that way later on, he found the 

 offending lashes had grown into bushes, such as 

 he had never before seen; and his long ignorance of 

 sleep not having taken all the curiosity out of him, 

 he nibbled the leaves, and found them possessed of 

 an eye-opening tendency. He related the discovery 

 to his friends and neighbours, and the tea-plant was 

 forthwith taken in hand. 



_ This, the most generally accepted indication of the 

 first notice of tea in China — vague and legendary, I 

 admit, but nothing more accurate is obtainable— uses 



the name of Dharma as the promoter or creator of 

 the tea-plant. The actua". records speak positively of 

 such a man, saying he was a native of India, prob- 

 ably a Fakir, and that he crossed to Japan. Kaempf. 

 er states, upon the authority of Japanese chronicles, 

 tliat tea was introduced into that country by a 

 prince of the name of Dharma. 



It will be advancing no theory to say that many 

 mythological legends are based upon actual occurrences. 

 In this year of enlightenment, 1881, we do not, of 

 course, believe tluat a man named Dliarma— especially 

 an Indian — lived for years without sleeping, any mot-e 

 than we do that the tea-plant came out of his head : 

 but it is possible, and even very probable, that the 

 plant was brought to the notice of the Chinese by 

 Dliarma, just as it was to that of the Japanese by 

 the .same person. And when the ancient history of 

 China is studied, one is quite prepared to find that 

 a matter of past discovery or introduction has been 

 enshrouded in a fanciful record verging upon, if not 

 actually clothed in, the alleg-irical, while at the same 

 time indicating the actual. Yet, do what we will, 

 we are, of conr.se, guided by conjecture ; by re.ison 

 of which, at this late date, it is difficult either to 

 prove or deny the existence of the tea-plant in China 

 anterior to, or through the agency of Dlwrma. 



Briefly, the matter stands thus. The most feasible of 

 the Chinese %(»(/.s- on the subject makes the existence of 

 the iea-plant in Cliina to have originated with Dharma, 

 who came from India in a.d 510. The Chinese chronicles 

 tell of such a visitor during the reign of Vtl Ty, a.d. 

 54.>, stating that he came from India and crossed to 

 Japan. The Japanese chronicles record the visit 

 and s.iy Dharma introduced the tea-plant to that 

 country. The Chinese and Japanese versions of the 

 first phases of tea in their respective countries are thus 

 attributed to a native of India. If we enter into the 

 conjectural domain cf "peihaps," there will scarcely 

 be a limit to surpassing whatever we may advance. I 

 will therefore venture only one "perhaps," and I feel 

 quite sorry to do even that, having no doubt that 

 Dharma was a very respectable individual, when doing 

 the tea-plant business in China, at the time that Eng- 

 land was divided into several kingdoms. 



iVly one "perhaps" is this; and I think all who un- 

 derstand the Indian character at the present time will ad- 

 mit that it is not afar-fetched one. Perhape Dharma 

 finding he was introducing to the Chinese an unknown 

 plant, possessing peculiar properties, accounted for 

 its e.xisteuce in true Oriental fashion iu a way not 

 lowering to his own importance in the eyes of a 

 superstitious people. 



Mr. Ball says (p. 17):— "Recent discoveries in Assam 

 also seem to justify the assumption, if nothing to the 

 contrary be known, that it (tea) has spontaneously 

 extended its growth along a continuous and almost 

 uninterrupted mountainous range, but of moderate 

 altitude, nearly from the great river the Yang-tse- 

 Kiang, to the countries flunking the south-western 

 frontier of China, where this range falls in with, or 

 agreeably with the opinion of a well-informed and 

 fcientitie author, Dr. Koyle, forms a continuation of 

 the Himalayan range. But in those countries, as in 

 every part of thina, if found in the plains or in the 

 vicinity of habitations and cultivated grounds, it 

 may be fairly assumed that it was brought and 

 propagated there by the agency and industry of man. 



There is neither a record, nor anything approach- 

 ing a reasonable legend, to prove that tea was dis- 

 covered in a wild state in China before Dharma 

 brought it to notice. The earliest mention tells of 

 people using it, and it may be inferred therefrom 

 that they cultivated it. Precise and accurate inform- 

 ation is obtainable as to the actual discovery of 

 tea in Assam, away from habitations, and iu dense 

 jungles, far from " cultivated grounds." But similar 



