The Indian legend regarding the discovery of tea says that Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic, cut off his eyelids because he felt sleepy during meditation. Ten tea plants grew out of the eyelids, and the leaves of these plants, when put in hot water and drunk, banished sleep. This is the version Rajvir tells Pranjol in “Tea from Assam”, the third part of the NCERT Class 10 English chapter “Glimpses of India”. It is a legend, not history.
The Indian legend regarding the discovery of tea, in the NCERT words
In the textbook, Rajvir says: “No one really knows who discovered tea but there are many legends.” He then tells two. Here is the Indian one exactly as NCERT prints it:
> “We have an Indian legend too. Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic, cut off his eyelids because he felt sleepy during meditations. Ten tea plants grew out of the eyelids. The leaves of these plants when put in hot water and drunk banished sleep.”
Notice the key points examiners look for:
- Who: Bodhidharma
- What he was: an ancient Buddhist ascetic (a monk who lived a strict, simple life)
- Problem: he felt sleepy during meditation
- Action: he cut off his eyelids
- Result: ten tea plants grew out of the eyelids
- Use: the leaves, put in hot water and drunk, banished sleep
The textbook does not say where he was or for how long he meditated. Details such as “nine years facing a wall” come from later retellings, so leave them out of an exam answer.
Ready exam answers
Short answer (about 30 words)
Q. What is the Indian legend about the discovery of tea?
According to the Indian legend, Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic, cut off his eyelids because he felt sleepy during meditation. Ten tea plants grew out of them. Their leaves, brewed in hot water, banished sleep.
Long answer (about 100 words)
Q. Describe the Indian legend about the discovery of tea. (Class 10)
In “Tea from Assam”, Rajvir tells his friend Pranjol that no one really knows who discovered tea, but there are many legends. One of them is Indian. It is about Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic who spent long hours in meditation. He often felt sleepy while meditating. To stop himself from falling asleep, he cut off his eyelids. Ten tea plants grew out of those eyelids. When the leaves of these plants were put in hot water and drunk, they banished sleep. The legend links tea with alertness and with the discipline of meditation.
The Chinese legend in the same chapter
Just before the Indian legend, Rajvir tells the Chinese one. In NCERT’s words:
> “Well, there’s the one about the Chinese emperor who always boiled water before drinking it. One day a few leaves of the twigs burning under the pot fell into the water giving it a delicious flavour. It is said they were tea leaves.”
The textbook does not name the emperor. In Chinese tradition he is Shen Nung (also written Shennong), a mythical emperor and herbalist. Also note the textbook detail: the leaves came from the twigs burning under the pot. Many websites say the wind blew leaves into the water, but that is not what NCERT says.
Indian legend vs Chinese legend
| Point | Indian legend | Chinese legend |
|---|---|---|
| Main figure | Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic | A Chinese emperor (named Shen Nung in tradition, not in NCERT) |
| Situation | Felt sleepy during meditation | Always boiled water before drinking it |
| What happened | Cut off his eyelids; ten tea plants grew from them | Leaves from twigs burning under the pot fell into the water |
| Discovery | Leaves in hot water banished sleep | The water got a delicious flavour |
| What it shows about tea | Tea keeps you awake | Tea tastes good |
| Nature of event | Sacrifice and a miracle | Accident |
Chapter context: Tea from Assam
“Tea from Assam” is Part III of “Glimpses of India” in First Flight, the Class 10 English textbook (Chapter 5 in the current NCERT edition). The other two parts are “A Baker from Goa” and “Coorg”.
- Pranjol is a boy from Assam who studies with Rajvir at a school in Delhi. His father manages a tea garden in Upper Assam.
- Rajvir is Pranjol’s classmate. He has read a lot about tea before the trip, which is why he knows the legends.
- The journey: the boys travel by train. Rajvir tells Pranjol that over eighty crore cups of tea are drunk every day throughout the world.
- Mariani junction is the station where they get off and meet Pranjol’s parents.
- Dhekiabari Tea Estate is the garden managed by Pranjol’s father, Mr Barua.
- Second flush: Rajvir says the second flush or sprouting period lasts from May to July and yields the best tea.
Rajvir also says in the chapter that tea was first drunk in China as far back as 2700 B.C., that the words tea, “chai” and “chini” come from Chinese, and that tea reached Europe only in the sixteenth century, where it was drunk more as medicine than as a beverage. Pranjol also tells him that Assam has the largest concentration of plantations in the world. Today Assam is still India’s top producer, with about half of the country’s tea, as our Hindi guide on Assam, India’s largest tea producing state shows.
Legend vs history: what really happened with tea in Assam
The legend is a story. History is what records show. Keep the two apart in your answers.
What the legend is
There was a real Buddhist monk called Bodhidharma, traditionally dated to the fifth or sixth century and linked with the Chan (Zen) school in China. The eyelid story, however, is a legend. No historical record shows that tea plants grew from anyone’s eyelids. The story is told to explain why monks drank tea: it helped them stay alert during long meditation. Our post on the spiritual side of tea and Zen looks at that link.
What the history says
- Before the British: the tea plant grew wild in the forests of the north east. The Singpho people of the region brewed its leaves long before tea became a business. Google Arts and Culture’s story on the Singpho and Tangsa tea makers describes their bamboo tea tradition.
- 1823: Robert Bruce, a Scottish trader and explorer, came to know about this native tea through Maniram Dewan, an Assamese nobleman. Maniram Dewan introduced him to the Singpho chief, Bessa Gam, who gave him tea plants and seeds.
- After 1823: Robert Bruce died soon after. His brother, Charles Alexander Bruce, sent samples to the Botanical Garden in Calcutta, where the plant was identified as tea. British tea gardens in Assam followed in the next decades.
- The NCERT view: a reading passage in the same chapter says tea entered Indian life only in the mid nineteenth century, when the British started plantations in Assam and Darjeeling.
You can read the full timeline in our guide to the history of tea in India, and see what the gardens look like today in the heritage of India’s tea gardens.
FAQ
What is the Indian legend about tea?
Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic, cut off his eyelids because he felt sleepy during meditation. Ten tea plants grew from the eyelids, and their leaves in hot water banished sleep.
Who discovered tea according to the Indian legend?
According to the Indian legend, tea came from Bodhidharma, an ancient Buddhist ascetic. The tea plants grew from his eyelids.
How many tea plants grew from Bodhidharma’s eyelids?
Ten. NCERT says “Ten tea plants grew out of the eyelids.”
Which two legends did Rajvir tell about the discovery of tea?
The Chinese legend of an emperor whose boiling water got a delicious flavour when leaves from the burning twigs fell into it, and the Indian legend of Bodhidharma, whose cut eyelids grew into ten tea plants.
What is the Chinese legend about the discovery of tea?
A Chinese emperor always boiled water before drinking it. One day a few leaves from the twigs burning under the pot fell into the water and gave it a delicious flavour; they were said to be tea leaves.
Is the Indian legend about tea true?
No. It is a legend that explains why tea helps people stay awake. The real history of tea in India starts with the Singpho people’s wild tea and the British interest in it from 1823.
Which chapter has the Indian legend of tea in Class 10?
It is in “Tea from Assam”, Part III of “Glimpses of India” in the NCERT Class 10 English textbook First Flight.
Bottom line
The Indian legend regarding the discovery of tea is simple to remember: Bodhidharma felt sleepy during meditation, cut off his eyelids, ten tea plants grew from them, and the leaves in hot water banished sleep. In “Tea from Assam”, Rajvir tells it right after the Chinese emperor legend. For exams, use the NCERT wording, keep it separate from history, and if asked about real history, mention the Singpho people and 1823.
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