Tea History in India & Sri Lanka/CeylonMany people are of the opinion that there was no tea in India until seeds smuggled in from China by the British East India Company were planted there. To some extent, that is true in regard to the burgeoning Indian tea industry in the mid nineteenth century. Actually, it is believed that the origin of the tea bush is in the region where India, China and Burma (Myanmar) meet on the moist, hot slopes of the Eastern Himalayas.
Southern China and the state of Assam in India are the only two regions in the world with native tea plants. Tea was originally eaten and drunk by tribal groups in this area, and in a 10th century CE Sanskrit medical text (Nidana) from Assam there is mention of leaves called shamapatra from which shamapani is made. There is historical argument that this is the first mention of tea in India. I can find no other description of shamapatra.
By the 10th century, trade and cultural exchange from China along the Ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Road would have brought tea into this region. However, it was the British East India Cmpany, in an attempt to circumvent trade problems with China, who sought to find ways to grow tea in their colonies in India.
In 1823 tea seed and saplings were, indeed, smuggled from China. At some point during this decade, wild tea trees were discovered in the hills between Burma and the Indian state of Assam, so it was apparent that tea was indigenous to the region. The first tea estates in Assam were defined, and the first tea from Assam appeared in a Calcutta market in 1836. At the start of the First Opium War, China’s tea trade with England fell asunder and this was a catapult to the tea industry in India. The first commercial harvest from the seeds planted in Assam yielded only 350 lbs. in 1838. It was sold in London to high reviews from tea experts. Tea plantations were established in the regions of Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiri and introduced on the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1838. In 1858 England took over the rule of India from the British East India Company and the stage was set for a boon to the tea industry in India. The indigenous plants of India produce tea that is far superior to that which was transplanted from the Chinese plants. Today India is listed as the worlds’ leading producer of tea. It produces over 150,000 tons more tea than China. Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is celebrated for it’s high quality tea and it is the 3rd largest tea producing country in the world.
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