Came to India, went from India

In your book, Our Wondrous World (Chapter 10), you read many stories of things that travelled. Some things came TO India from other lands, and some things went FROM India to the world. Let us sort them.

Things that came to India: chillies, from South America, brought by travellers from Portugal. Potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts and cashews, which also travelled a long way to reach India. The marigold, from Mexico. Paper, which came from China through trade — before paper, people in India wrote on palm leaves and bark. And dates and lemons, which Arab traders brought.

Things that went from India: yoga. The way of making jaggery and sugar. Rice, mangoes and bananas, which went from India to other lands. The Gir, Kankrej and Ongole cows, which went to Brazil. Spices like pepper and cardamom, which traders called 'black gold' and travelled far to get. Indigo, a deep blue dye from India that coloured clothes in Africa and Europe. And the zero — it was first written down in India, and this idea of 'nothing' helped people around the world do mathematics better.

So things travel both ways. That is how the whole world is connected.