Baba Budan was a 17th-century

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

, whose shrine is at Baba Budangiri, Chikkamagalur,

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

, India. He is known to have first introduced the coffee plant to India by bringing seven raw beans from the port of

Mocha, Yemen Mokha (), also spelled Mocha, or Mukha, is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until Aden and al Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Long known for its coffee trade, the city ...

while coming back from

hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

in 1670. In those days coffee was exported to other parts of the world in roasted or baked form so that no one could grow their own and were forced to buy from the Yemenis. He brought seven beans because the number 7 is considered sacred in Islam. The coffee plants were then raised at this place that bears his name. Popular Indian lore says that on a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 17th century Baba Budan, a Sufi saint from Karnataka state, discovered coffee. In his eagerness to grow coffee himself at home, he smuggled seven coffee beans out of the Yemeni port of Mocha which were hidden in his beard. On his return home, he planted the beans on the slopes of the Chandradrona hills in Chikkamagaluru district,

Kingdom of Mysore The Kingdom of Mysore was a geopolitical realm in southern India founded in around 1399 in the vicinity of the modern-day city of Mysore and prevailed until 1950. The territorial boundaries and the form of government transmuted substantially ...

(present day

). This hill range was later named after him as the Baba Budangiri (Baba Budan Hills), where his tomb can be visited by taking a short trip from Chikmagalur.

References

* '' Coffee: A Dark History'' by Antony Wild. New York: Fourth Estate Press, 2004.
District: Chickmagalur – State: Karnataka
* Pendergrast, Mark, ''Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World,'' (New York: Basic Book, 1999). * Bhattacharya, Bhaswati.
Local History of a Global Commodity: Production of Coffee in Mysore and Coorg in the Nineteenth Century.
' Indian Historical Review 41, no. 1 (2014): 67-86. 17th-century Indian Muslims Indian Sufi saints Indian hermits Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Coffee in India {{karnataka-stub

See also

References