A small, intensely sweet 'mini powerhouse' from the village of Rataul in UP — grafted into being around 1905 by Sheikh Mohd Afaq Faridi, GI-tagged in India in 2021, and the same stock that became Pakistan's celebrated Anwar Ratol after Partition.
Named after Rataul, a village in Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh. 'Anwar Rataul' — the name carried to Pakistan after 1947 — honours a member of the founding Faridi family.
The Rataul is named for its birthplace: the village of Rataul in Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh. The story credits Sheikh Mohd Afaq Faridi, who around 1905 spotted a promising young tree, had it grafted, and by 1928 had built a nursery — Shohra-e-afaq — to propagate it, naming the variety Anwar Rataul in a family member's honour. India granted it a Geographical Indication tag in 2021.
The Rataul's history is also a history of Partition. After 1947 a member of the family carried seedlings across the new border to the Multan region of Pakistan, where the same stock became the celebrated Anwar Ratol — eventually a fixture of Pakistan's "mango diplomacy." The two names now mark the same fruit on two sides of a contested origin: Rataul for the original UP village, Anwar Ratol for its Pakistani life.
Small and yellow, the Rataul has earned the nickname "mini powerhouse" — modest in size but exceptional in sweetness and almost free of fibre. Early-season fruit (May–June) is the sweeter, more fragile crop, vulnerable to wind and rain; later fruit (July–August) is sturdier and thicker-skinned but less intense. Either way, the appeal is the same: a concentrated, aromatic sweetness in a fruit you can finish in a few bites.
The Rataul is made for fresh eating — its small, fibreless flesh is ideal hand fruit. It has long been a premium gifting mango (the role that underwrote its diplomatic fame), and its smooth pulp works happily into desserts and mango preparations.