Maize in Pre-Columbian India

by J. Huston McCulloch

Carl L. Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker, "Maize Ears Sculptured in 12th and 13th Century A.D. India as Indicators of Pre-Columbian Diffusion," Economic Botany 43 , 1989, 164-80, argue that stone carvings of maize ears exist in at least three pre-Columbian Hoysala stone block temples near Mysore, Karnataka state, India. Their article provides 16 photographs of a few of the sculptures in question.

Johannessen [1924 - 2019] has now made three large-scale color photographs available online at https://web.archive.org/web/20060919064018/http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/research.html [new Archive.org URL, 11/25], with a brief discussion. These photos reveal considerable detail that is lost in the reduced scale black and white reproductions that appeared in the journal article. His photos are the source of the thumbnails appearing on this site, and may be viewed full size by clicking below:

         

In his 1998 article "Pre-Columbian American Sunflower and Maize Images in Indian Temples: Evidence of Contact between Civilizations in India and America" (see references below), Johannessen goes on to cite several appearances of the sunflower, another New World crop, in pre-Columbian Indian temple sculptures. To view Figure 1 from that article, enlarged and in color on his website, click on the thumbnail below:

Maize had previously been reported in several Hoysala temples by Carl Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker ("Maize Ears Sculptured in 12th and 13th Century AD India as Indicators of Pre-Columbian Diffusion," Economic Botany vol. 43, 1989, pp. 164-180). Photos of a few of these sculptures are online at http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/research.html, http://econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/maize.html, and http://www.globalserve.net/~yuku/dif/wmzpix.htm.

Vocal critics of Johannessen and Parker have argued that it was their lack of understanding of the intricacies of Hindu iconography that prevented them from realizing that what is depicted in these sculptures is in fact not maize, but rather something else - variously muktaphala (lit. "pearl-fruit", an imaginary fruit made of pearls), some exotic tropical fruit, or even, by one account, the Kalpavrksha, a mythical wish-granting tree (!).

Gupta's earlier books, including Plant Myths and Traditions in India (1971), Vishnu and His Incarnations (1974), Legends around Shiva (1979), and Festivals, Fairs, and Fasts of India (1990), establish her as an authority on Indian mythology and, in particular, the role of plants in Indian mythology. Now, she has provided a definitive text identifying some 70 varieties of plants depicted in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist temple art in India.

Prof. Gupta writes,

Different varieties of the corn cob [Zea mays Linn.] are extensively sculpted but only on the Hindu and Jain temples of Karnataka. Various deities are shown as carrying a corn cob in their hands as on the Chenna Kesava temple, Belur. The straight rows of the corn grains can be easily identified. In the Lakshmi Narasimha temple, Nuggehalli, the eight-armed dancing Vishnu in his female form of Mohini is holding a corn cob in one of her left hands and the other hands hold the usual emblems of Vishnu. .... In the Trikuta basti, Mukhamandapa, Sravanbelgola, Karnataka, a 12th century A.D. sculpture of Ambika Kushmandini sitting on a lotus seat under a canopy of mangoes holds in her left hand a corn cob. Plate 223 depicting a Nayika holding a corn cob in her left hand is from Nuggehalli, Karnataka.

Temples where the sculptures of corn cobs are found are dated 12-13th century A.D. The common belief [!] is that maize originated in Mexico and came to India by the 11th-12th century. By the time these temples were constructed, maize would have been fairly common in India. (p. 176).

She finds Sunflower (Helianthus annuus Linn.), a native of Central and South America, in the Rani Gumpha cave, Udaigiri, 2nd century B.C. (p. 30). Johannessen independently reports sunflower in his article, "Pre-Columbian American Sunflower and Maize Images in Indian Temples: Evidence of Contact between Civilizations in India and America" (in Davis Bitton, ed., Mormons, Scripture and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson, FARMS, Provo UT, 1998).

Pineapple (Ananas cosmosus [Linn.] Merrill), a plant indigenous to Brazil, is, according to Gupta, "clearly depicted" in Udayagiri cave temple, Madhya Pradesh, circa 5th century A.D. (p. 18). Cashew (Anacardium occidentale Linn.), a native of Brazil, is depicted in a Bharhut stupa balustrade relief, circa 2nd century B.C. (p. 17). Gupta finds custard apple (Annona Squamosa Linn.) sculpted at Bharhut, circa 2nd century B.C., and at Kakatiya, Karnataka, 12th century A.D. (pp. 19-20). According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, this plant is native to the New World tropics and Florida. And finally, monstera (Monstera deliciosa Liebm.), also known as split leaf philodendron, a large evergreen climber native to Central America, appears in Hindu and Jain temples in Gujarat and Rajastan from the 11th to 13th centuries (pp. 108-9).

According to Gupta, the chili pepper (Capsicum annuum Linn.) is mentioned in the Siva and Varmana Puranas, circa 6-8th centuries A.D. Unfortunately she does not give page references or indicate the term used for it there, and the only temple carving she has found of it dates to the 17th century A.D. This very important native of Mexico and Latin America deserves further investigation.

The naga lingham, the flower of the South American and West Indian cannonball tree (Couroupita guaianensis Aubl.), was, according to Gupta, "cultivated in India from very early times." In her timeframe, this would mean very early pre-Columbian times. She notes that it figures into the worship of Shiva at several temples. Nevertheless, the only sculpture of it she shows again dates from the 17th century A.D. This plant also merits further research.

Gupta's book contains a wealth of evidence for pre-Columbian contacts between the New World and the Old, despite the fact that she is not particularly interested in, or even aware of, the possibility. She does repeatedly reject reports that such-and-such plant was introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, but in her conclusion suggests that perhaps plants such as the pineapple and custard apple "were indigenous to India." Despite the "common belief" (evidently Johannessen and Parker's) that maize was brought to India from Mexico prior to the construction of the Hoysala temples, she reports that "Maize is also believed to have an Indian origin..." It is my understanding that this is botanically impossible, although it is quite conceivable that maize was present in the subcontinent for many centuries before the Hoysala dynasty, and that distinctively Asian varieties were developed early on.

Despite Gupta's confirmation of maize in the Hoysala sculptures Johannessen and Parker discuss, she argues that the similar but distinctly squatter objects that appear in earlier sculptures are not maize but rather Citron (Citrus medica var. Limonum of Watt.) or Lemon (Citrus limon [Linn.]), both Old World plants (p. 53). Perhaps so, but it is noteworthy that the "citron" she says is held by a Yaksha in an 8th century A.D. sculpture from Aihole has kernels aligned in maize-like rows. A citron looks like a large lemon with a deeply puckered skin, but the puckering is random, and does not simulate maize kernels as in her very clear photograph.

Unfortunately, Gupta makes no mention of Johannessen and Parker or their predecessors, or of the lively debate that surrounds the "maize ears." She also makes no mention of "muktaphala," or "pearl-fruit," the Sanskrit name said to be associated with these objects. My own hunch is that this was actually a name that was used for maize.

Gupta's book is a little hard to find in the United States. I had to have the Ohio State University libraries order it specially, and at present it has one of only two copies in the entire Ohiolink university library consortium. At $110 it is a little pricey, but it is informative, attractive and well done. The photos are good but almost all black and white. All the illustrations are well annotated.

Andrews' purpose is to explain how New World maize, capsicum peppers, beans, squash, and turkeys came to be introduced into Europe in the 16th century from the Turkish domains to the East rather than directly from Iberia, whose navigators had supposedly just discovered the New World for the first time in 1492.

A particularly tight squeeze is the Mexican pepper, Capsicum annuum var annuum. Cortez did not penetrate Mexico until 1519, yet Fuchs' herbal of 1542 (written as early as 1538) already has it established in Central Europe, presumably through Turkish influence.

This problem was already described in 1958 by E. Anderson, she says, as the "Anatolian Mystery": "Oddly, the Ottoman Turkish Empire, especially Anatolia, rather than Iberia became a center of diversity for squashes, pumpkins, popcorn, and possibly other American crops..."

Her solution is that the Portuguese, not the Spanish, introduced these crops to the Old World, and then not to Portugal but rather to their African colonies. From there they took them to India, where they became established and eventually passed through Persia or Arabia to Turkey, then to the Balkans, and finally to Central and Western Europe.

She admits this scenario is "improbable" (p. 194, 198, 203), and requires some "remarkably" fast transmission (200). Indeed, any quarterback who carried the ball twice the length of the field to make a touchtown rather than simply step across the line would receive a double Heisman trophy! (Either that or be penalized for Unsportsmanlike Conduct...)

A further problem is that the Portuguese were barred by the Treaty of Tordesillas from the Mesoamerican source of most of these crops. This limitation she dismisses as "more theoretical than real in the early sixteenth century."

Her principal area of expertise is capsicum peppers. Her solution to the early Turkish possession of the Mexican variety C. annuum var annuum, rather than the West-Indian South American - Brazilian C. chinese, aka aji, is that, contrary to most opinion on the subject, the former must have in fact been present in the West Indes when Columbus arrived.

(Note that early botanists thought that even the aji originated in the Orient, whence C. chinese.)

It seems to me, at least, that a far simpler solution is Johannessen and Parker's -- that there was some contact between India and Mesoamerica before Columbus. This would explain both the sculptured maize ears in India, and miscellaneous evidence of Oriental influence in Mesoamerica as noted by Michael Coe. At the same time, it would give these crops more time to variegate and spread from Asia into Europe.

If Andrews in 1993 was aware of the 1989 J&P article, she makes no mention of it. She does cite three papers by M.D.W. Jeffreys, upon whose suggestions J&P built, but only as an authority for the presence of maize in Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe as early as 1502. She makes no mention of the fact that Jeffreys firmly believed that maize was present in Africa and/or India ten crucial years before that. The papers she cites do not include his piece in the 1971 Man Across the Sea volume, where he most forcefully makes his case.

Uchibayashi (2005) reports an illustration of maize in a 1505 Chinese herbal entitled Bencao Pinhui Jingyao. He deems it unlikely that maize could have diffused all the way to China in just 13 years after 1492, and hence interprets this as "clear evidence" that maize must have been in China "at least a few decades before 1505."

Uchibayashi also reports the use of the word yumi (maize) in the poem Youwu zashu, written by Xie Yingfan circa 1368. Two additional references, to yumai-zi or corn-silk, appear in works dating to the 15th century, though it could not be ascertained that these were not later additions to the original works.

Uchibayashi (2005), which reports the new finds, is in English. Uchibayashi (2006a) is a Japanese extension of Uchibayashi (2005). Uchibayashi (2006b), also in Japanese, is a survey of earlier work on the pre-Columbian maize issue.

Gabe Heimstra's very useful website Wisdom Library provides 17 definitions of muktaphala in Sanskrit, Marathi, Kannada, and Nepali. In Sanskrit, mukta literally means pearl, while phala literally means fruit, so that muktaphala literally means pearl-fruit. Specifically, has been used to mean a pearl per se, the custard apple (Annona squamosa), the fruit of the Lavali plant, camphor, and a kind of flower that appears in Buddhist literature, but nowhere has it meant an imaginary fruit.

Of the actual "fruits" named, the custard apple is closest in shape to the objects identified by Johannessen and Parker as maize, being circular in cross-section, tapering to a blunt point at the top, and having geometrically arranged nubs on the surface. An excellent photo is on the Kew Royal Botanical Garden's Plants of the World Online (POWO) website, at https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:laid:ipni.org:names,72319-1. However, the nubs (which are the ends of the cepals) are not arranged in pairs of lengthwise rows as on the "maize" sculptures, but rather alternate much like the leaves on an artichoke. Some of the "maize" sculptures are approximately fist-shaped like the custard apple, but the latter is never elongated and never comes to a narrow point as in many of the "maize" sculptures. Gupta (1996, see above) does identify custard apple in addition to maize in pre-Columbian Indian temple art, but since, according to POWO, it is native to Mexico through Colombia, it is just as problematic for the doctrine of pre-Columbian isolation as maize.

"Lavali," according to Wisdom Library, is a Sanskrit word for Phyllanthus disticus, a.k.a. Phyllanthus acidus, whose common name is the West Indian Gooseberry. This plant has fruits that can appear in clusters resembling a bunch of grapes, but which could not be mistaken for the "maize" sculptures. Despite its common name, it is a native of Brazil.

"Camphor" is the common name of 30 diverse species according to POWO, but it most often refers to Camphora officinorum, a.k.a. Cinnamomum camphora. This tree has loose clusters of black or green seeds that might be considered "pearly," but which again look nothing like the "maize" sculptures. "Camphor" is also the name of the aromatic substance derived from this tree and several other, unrelated plants. When extracted and refined, it may present as a colorless, waxy mass with pearl-like knobs, but again these lack the geometrical regularity of the "maize" sculptures.

In the Kannada language, which is particularly interesting because it is and was the primary language of Karnataka state where the Hoysala temples are found, "muktaphala" can mean pearl, but may also be used as a term of abuse (!). Since Kannada is a Dravidian rather than Indo-Aryan language, this must have been a loan word from Sanskrit. In Marathi, the word can mean pearl, custard apple, or calligraphy. In Nepali, it means only pearl. Muktaphala is also the personal name of an ancient king, as well as the title of a 13c AD tract on the essence of devotion by Vopadeva.

Given that "muktaphala" is known to have been used for at least three plants with "pearly fruits", it would not be surprising if it were also the actual word for maize (in Sanskrit and/or Kannada) at the time the temples in question were built. Payak and Sachan tell us that maize was not cultivated in Karnataka before the 1960s, because it was highly susceptible to Sorghum Downy mildew (Peronosclerospora sorghi) until modern hybrids were introduced in 1961. It seems likely, therefore, that maize flourished in Karnataka during the Hoysala period, until this mildew happened to be introduced from another region, much as the potato flourished in Ireland until a disastrous blight was introduced from Mexico in 1846. Since maize cannot germinate efficiently in the wild without a specialized moth found only in the Valley of Mexico, it would have quickly died out and become truly "nonexistent" once cultivation stopped.

Payak and Sachan obtained the term "Muktaphala" as the actual name of the objects in question from a Prof. Prabhu Shanker of the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Mysore. When shown photographs of the alleged maize sculptures, his "instant reaction" was, "It is not maize. It is Muktaphala -- a fruit made of pearls -- very commonly seen in many icons." They conclude, "It is thus inappropriate to identify this object with fruit of an extant plant, much less with maize." It would be useful to learn the source Prof. Shanker had in mind, since Wisdom Library gives no definition as an imaginary fruit literally made of pearls. Unfortunately, a Google search does not turn up any person of his name with the appropriate age and credentials.

Payak and Sachan report that the stone inscriptions accompanying the temples name at least 10 foodstuffs used in worship, none of which is called "maize" or even "Musukin Jola," the modern Kannada word for maize. It would be interesting to know if any additional but unidentified food names are listed. In particular, do these inscriptions refer to "Muktaphala"? Although Payak and Sachan adamantly deny that the temple sculptures identified by Johannessen and Parker represent maize, they conclude, based on the earlier genetic work of Kumar and Sachan (1993), "... no doubt, maize could have been present in the pre-Columbian period in Asia including India..." (!)

In 2019, pseudonymous Wikimedia contributor Shyamal donated 19 high quality photos of Halebid sculptures, most (but not all) of which are holding the maize-like objects. A few of these are of the type Johannessen would describe as being ears in the husk, with the kernels only partly showing through the outer layer. For a gallery of all 19, search https://commons.wikimedia.org for "Halebid Muktaphala." The files have names like File:Halebid_Muktaphala_1.jpg, etc. Shyamal identifies these as "maize-like Muktaphala" without further discussion. Some of them may coincide with figures in the Johannessen and Parker article, though I have not checked this. Many have resolutions as high as 3168 x 4224.

A word of caution: According to the Wikipedia article on the Hoysaleswara (or Hoysaleshwara) Temple at Halebid, this and other Hoysala temples were plundered in 1326 AD by Muslim armies, and then fell into disrepair and neglect. They were extensively restored under British colonial rule after 1799, but with little documentation. We must ask, then, whether these are really the original sculptures. However, since most of the figures have been ritually defaced with broken noses, it is likely that they are original.

Jean Andrews, "Diffusion of Mesoamerican Food Complex to Southeastern Europe," Geographical Review 83 (1993): 194-204.

Shakti M. Gupta, Plants in Indian Temple Art, B.R. Publishing Corp, Delhi, 1996. ISBN 81-7018-883-0. See review above.

Gabe Heimstra, Wisdom Library wisdomlib.org website, accessed 11/26/25 at Glossary:Muktaphala, Glossary:Lavali and Concepts:Muktaphala.

Carl L. Johannessen, "Indian Maize in the Twelfth Century [AD]," Nature 14 April 1988, p. 587.

Carl L. Johannessen, "Distribution of Pre-Columbian Maize and Modern Maize Names," in Shue Tuck Wong, ed., Person, Place and Thing: Interpretative and Empirical Essays in Cultural Geography Volume 31 of Geocience and Man . Geoscience Publications, Louisiana State Univ. Dept. of Geography and Anthropology, Baton Rouge, 1992.

Carl L. Johannessen, "Maize Diffused to India before Columbus Came to America," in D.Y. Gilmore and L.S. McElroy, eds., Across Before Columbus?: Evidence for Transoceanic Contact with the Americas prior to 1492, New England Antiquities Research Association, Edgecomb, Maine, 1998, pp. 109-24.

Carl L. Johannessen, "Pre-Columbian American Sunflower and Maize Images in Indian Temples: Evidence of Contact between Civilizations in India and America," NEARA Journal vol. 32 #1 (Summer 1998), pp. 4 ff., and also in Davis Bitton, ed., Mormons, Scripture and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson, FARMS, Provo UT, 1998.

Carl L. Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker, "Maize Ears Sculptured in 12th and 13th Century A.D. India as Indicators of Pre-Columbian Diffusion," Economic Botany 43 , 1989, 164-80.

Kew Royal Botanical Gardens Plants of the World (POWO) website, powo.science.kew.org, accessed 11/30/2025. M. Kumar and J.K.S. Sachan, "Antiquity of maize in India", in Maize Genetics Cooperation Newsletter 1993 (vol. 67), p. 98. Click here for text.

M.M. Payak and J.K.S. Sachan, "'Maize' in Somnathpur, an Indian Mediaeval temple," Nature 27 October 1988, pp. 773-4.

M.M. Payak and J.K.S. Sachan, "Maize Ears Not Sculptured in 13th Century Somnathpur Temple in India," Economic Botany 47 (2), 1993, pp. 202-5.

Masao Uchibayashi, "Maize in Pre-Columbian China," Yakugaku Zasshi (Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan) 125 (7), July 2005, pp. 583-586. In English.

Masao Uchibayashi, "Maize in Pre-Columbian China Found in Bencao Pinhui Jingyao," Yakugaku Zasshi (Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan) 126 (1), Jan. 2006a, pp. 27-36. Expanded version, in Japanese, of Uchibayashi (2005).

Masao Uchibayashi, "The Presence of Pre-Columbian Maize in the Old World -- An Overview," Yakugaku Zasshi (Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan) 126 (6), June 2006b, pp. 423-427. In Japanese.

T. Veena and N. Sigamani, "Do Objects in Friezes of Somnathpur Temple (1268 A.D.) in South India Represent Maize Ears?" Current Science 25 Sept. 1991, pp. 395-7. See also fine photo on front cover of issue.

Note that although Sachan's article with Kumar (1993) provides genetic evidence for the antiquity of maize in India, thus independently corroborating the Johannessen and Parker hypothesis, the same Sachan (with Payak, 1988, 1993) curiously remains one of the most outspoken critics of J&P's identification of the sculptures.

[Added 11/25] The embedded Archive.org URLs for the above photographs are as follows:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100619092325/http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/images/maize1.JPG
https://web.archive.org/web/20100619092459/http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/images/maize2.JPG
https://web.archive.org/web/20100619092749/http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/images/maize13.JPG
https://web.archive.org/web/20100619094329/http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/images/Sunflower.jpg