Legend ascribes the creation of tea plant to Daruma or Bodhidharma – the founder of Zen Buddhism. Centuries ago, the saint fell asleep while meditating near Nanking in China. He cut his eyelids when he woke up as he had punished himself. A plant came up where the eyelids had fallen. Its leaves were found to give a brew that could banish sleep. This is how the tea plant was born and the tea beverage came into being.

The history of tea in India, however, does not go beyond 1774, when a consignment of tea seeds from China arrived in his country. In 1778, Sir Joseph Banks, in a note on the cultivation of new crops, suggested that experiments be made with tea which he felt would grow well between the 26th and the 30th parallels of latitude. He also suggested the possibility of importing tea growers and tea makers from China. In 1793, banks had visited China to obtain detailed information about the cultivation and manufacture of tea. Thereafter, a consignment of seeds and plants was sent back to Calcutta.

Nothing seems to have happened after that until 1891 when David Scott, Agent to the Governor- General in Assam, began to take. An interest in the suggestion made by banks ad wrote for a consignment of plants and seeds which earlier been sent to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. The consignment was dispatched but the plants apparently died.

Shortly there after, the Bruce brothers appeared on the scene. During his travels in Assam, Robert Bruce discovered that tea existed in those areas and asked for a specimen of the tea plant. Robert’s brother C.A.Bruce joint him who later claimed that “he was the first European who ever penetrated the forest and visited the tea tracts in British Suddiya.” This claim he stoutly maintained, but in 1841 he was challenged by Lt. Charlton, who had been serving in Assam and who claimed that he had sent tea plants to the Agricultural & Horticultural Society as far back as 1831.

As a result the tea company was appointed on February 1, 1834, and included several employees of the East India Company, three Calcutta merchants, Dr N. Wallich, Botanist to the East India Company, and two Indian Gentlemen. In the same year, Capt. F. Jenkins, who had his headquarters at Jorhat, was the recipient of a circular to local officials sent out by the tea committee asking for information. Jenkins showed this circular to is assistant who happened o be Charlton who thereafter sent Jenkis seeds and leaves of the tea tree from Suddiya. It was finally established that this was the genuine tea plant.

From those very early beginnings, and largely as a result of an unending stream of dedication planters, the industry has spread in the northeast India. Indeed, the whole of the Brahmaputra Valley is now almost one great green carpet and from there, it has spilled over into the Dooars and the foothills of the Himalayas.

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