topics: |  botany | india | myth-folk

Myths associated with Indian flowers.
[Excellent collection, deserves much wider circulation!
For the folk tales, it would have enriched the text to have the sources, see,
methodology e.g. Beck, Folktales of India]
fulltext: http://vidyaonline.org/arvindgupta/manekatrees.pdf

QUOTE: CORAL JASMINE (Parijata, Harasingara, Shiuli)
Why the Parijata blooms at night
   A legend in the Vishnu Purana tells of a king who had a beautiful and
sensitive daughter called Parijata. She fell in love with Surya, the
sun. Leave your kingdom and be mine, said the sun passionately. Obediently
Parijata shed her royal robes and followed her beloved.
   But the sun grew cold as he tired of Parijata and soon he deserted her and
fled back to the sky.  The young princess died heartbroken. She was burnt on
the funeral pyre and from her ashes grew a single tree. From its drooping
branches grew the most beautiful flowers with deep orange hearts. But. since
the flowers cannot bear the sight of the sun, they only bloom when it
disappears from the sky and, as its first rays shoot out at dawn, the flowers
fall to the ground and die.

It is a small, quick growing deciduous tree. The leaves grow opposite each
other and each large ovate leaf is dark green on its upper surface and light
green and hairy below.  The seven petalled flowers come out in bunches of
five at the side and ends of the branchlets. Each starlike creamy flower has
an orange tube heart and sits in a pale green cup. The flowers open out in
the evening permeating the air with a strong fragrance. They fall off at
daybreak.  The leaves are so rough that they are used for polishing wood
instead of fine sandpaper. The bark is used for tanning leather.

TAMARIND: Why the leaves of the Tamarind are so small (A Sambalpuri legend)
Long long ago when both godsand demons walked the earth, Bhasmas ra was the
chief of the Asura or demon army. He challenged Mahadeo or Shiva, the god of
destruction, to a duel. The winner, it was decided, would become the ruler of
the Earth.  Mahadeo took up the challenge. The two fought and Bhasmasura was
wounded several times. He ran for his life, fleeing through the forest
looking for a place to hide. Then he saw a Tamarind tree with huge spreading
branches and giant leaves. He climbed up hastily and covered himself with the
leaves. Mahadeo found that the demon had vanished. He looked everywhere and
as he passed under the Tamarind tree Bhasmasura shifted nervously and the
leaves rustled. Mahadeo looked up. He knew his enemy had been found but he
couldn’t see him. He tried with one eye, then with both but the leaves hid
the demon from sight.  Mahadeo’s patience was exhausted. With a roar of rage
he opened the magical third eye in the centre of his forehead.  Each leaf
disintegrated into small pieces. Mahadeo saw Bhasmasura and killed him. The
Earth was saved from the demons, but the leaves of the Tamarind have always
remained small.

BANANA:
The botanist, Rumphuis, writes that the banana came from East India, growing
first on either side of the Ganges river, and from there it went to Persia,
Syria, Arabia and Egypt. Buddhist sculptures show banana leaves and a drink
called Mochapana is mentioned in the Buddhist book of monastic rules.

According to legend, the Banana fertilizes itself without cross
pollination. So it is regarded as an incarnation of the goddess Parvati. In
Eastern India marriage podiums have Banana stalks at the corners. In the
Western Ghats, the Banana tree is believed to be the Goddess Nanda Devi. Her
images are carved out of the stalk and, in the month of Kartika, floated down
the river. In the Mahabharata, Kadalivana or the Banana garden on the banks
of Kuberapushkarni is the home of the monkey god, Hanuman.  The Banana plant
is considered sacred to the nine forms of the Hindu goddess Kali. In Bengal
marriages are performed under it and it is worshipped in the month of Sravan
(July-August). A saying in Bengali goes
	Kala lagiye na keto pat
	Tatei kapad tatei bhat.
(Do not destroy the leaves of a planted banana, You will get both your food
and cloth.)