FLOWER –പൂവ് Dear friends,
This write up on flowers is a generalthinking. Flowers are very beautiful to see. Smelling flowers are more attractive.There could be no person who cannot enjoycolourfull and smelling flowers. When I saw Brindavan Gardens in 1981’s I reallygot astonished. Similarly two year back the botanical gardens at Ooty. I was 2nd head of the teamto decide the Best Telephone exchange awarding committee from 1998 to 2003 inKerala. Gardening andpremises cleanliness was one of the major items to be seen. Thiscreated in me later gardening interest in my home and surely on upkeeping. If we talked of some floweringdetails in some premises visited, mostly others tried to do better about theirgarden and premises. So if circumstances are there many may automatically getabsorbed to gardening. Ihad seen very beautiful gardening and up keeping at Tiruvalla. Nowseeing the soap “Pattusari” in mazhavil manorama, I presume mostly shoot in thearea gives very beautiful up keeping and gardens. We may be anxious to see the flowersin plants which would give vegetables and fruits. Sometimes a plant may flowerall on a sudden. One thing I have observed is, if I talk something about aplant not flowering or about to flower, others in the house also are curious ofthe same. I really have enjoyed this aspect. Many flowers are taken for worshipingin the temples. Certain flowers are regional liking. Till I was in hill stationin early 1973’s in Kodaikkanal, to say frankly I was not knowing flowers (Many flowers?) would not smellin hill stations. It was something new to understand so. Most flowers are meant for reproduction.On account of this, we should not pluck more than 50% flowers from the plant.Most temples have nandavanam (Flower garden). This provides the flowerrequirement of the temples. Flowers forpersonal use are cultivated and now a day for the temples also. I have learnt Sreerangam has abig nandavanam in Tamilnadu. Let me continue some interesting aspectsabout Flowers. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 27-11-2013. Repostedon 13-2-2021 after editing and updating .R. Gopala krishnan. 1.Mullakkal Devi temple One day evening Chempakasseri rajawas strolling along the gardens. He observed some persons moving anddisappearing near the jasmine gardens. He could feel it could be the Vanadevatha. Accordingly atemple was constructed for her in that area which is the famous MULLAI KAL Devi temple in theheart of Alleppy city. The sanctum has no covering at the roof. 2.Poomootal at Kadampuzha. Kadampuzhais in between Palghat and Malappuram close to Malappuram. In the afternoon pooja Poomootal isperformed after all Muttarukkal offerings are done. I have once attended thepoomootal pooja. KadampuzhaDevi is also Vanadevatha.The speciality with the temple is the night pooja is performed very early, thebelief is Devi may wander in the gardens later. Here red flower Thetti is used for Poomootal. Advance booking is required for theoffering done on specified days. There could be devotees waiting for years for the offering. 3.Aandal and Vishnu chitthan Vishnuchittan was a devotionalBrahmin. Every day morning he would pluck flowers from the temple garden, givefor pooja in the SriVilliputhur Vishnu temple and also prepare garland foradorning Vishnu. Aandal was his adopted daughter. After preparing the garlandhe would keep in the house to give in time to the temple. When he was away Aandal used towear it and see herself and keep it back. One day Vishnuchitthan came to knowof it. He felt guilty he was giving the garland after worn by his daughter,unknowingly. An asaree (Divine voice) heard- I like to wear the garlands after worn by Aandal. Vishnuchitthan became happy.Afterwards it was a practice to give garlands to the deity after worn byAandal. The legend is at marriageable time Aandal wanted to marry Sri Ranganatha of Sree rangam, and as per divine order she wastaken there with all decorations and Vadyams as for marriage in a processionfrom Srivilliputhur. They neared the temple and Aandal got in and when she neared sanctum she gotmerged to Ranganatha. 4.Parijatham Poothulanja neelaravil… The origin of parijatham is relatedwith the churning of milky ocean. When Parijatham tree came up the allotterBrahma gave it to plant in Indra’s garden. Hence parijathambecame a Devaloka plant. Parijatham is also called Pavizhamalli. One day a parijatha flower wasbrought by Narada to Sathyabhama from Devaloka. She got attracted to thefragrance and desired Krishna to have the plant in her garden also. Krishna, not in very good terms withIndra on account of Govardhanagiri incident, somehow to please Sathyabhamastarted to Indra’s palace.*** ButIndra diplomatically received Krishna and consented to take a plant to Bhooloka. Krishna brought it, as desiredplanted in Sathyabhama’s garden, but flowers fall in Rukmini’s garden,satisfying both. Parijatham blossom in the midnightabout 11 PM. It gives a sweet fragrance at that time. The flowers fall in the early morning andappear like white star studs. Bringing up the plant protecting fromwhite ants, Kambilippoochhi requires more attention. The flower is fragile. In my garden it was growing tall. NowI grow it as bonsai and gives few flowers. Mynote- ***There is a version Krishnafought with Indra and got Parigatham to Bhooloka 5.Thazhampoovin narumanatthil … (Kaithappoo)The legend associated with Thazhampoois told in Ramayana during vanavasa period. For new readers the legend told here in nut shell. It was thithi for Dasaratha. Sreeramawent for getting things for sraadha with Lakshmana. Dasaratha (pithru) appearedbefore Seetha and said he is hungry and when told Sreerama has gone to getthings, he wanted Seetha toprepare something and give. Keeping many things from Kamadhenu,vatavriksham, Agni, Thazhampoo, Phalghoo River, she offered food to Dasarathaand Dasaratha left. Sree Rama could not believe the narration of Seetha. Shecalled the witnesses. ExceptVatavrisksham all said, they have not seen (Why should we get bad name from Sreerama…) Sita cursed all except Vadavriksham for not telling the truth. She cursed Thazhampoo, itwill not be used for any pooja. One has to be careful of the pluckingof flower. Snakes could be near for its sweet fragrance. The plant grows nearriver beds. This incident happened at Gaya. 6.Kalyana Sougandhikam.. The flower is told in Mahabharata.This too during Vanavasa of Pandeva’s. One day Droupadi got attracted to sweetfragrance of a flower and desired husband Bheema to get it. Bhima started inthe direction of smell. On the way he met his half-brother Anjaneya and hehelps in getting the flower. I have no details aboutthis flower whether available now, grown etc. 7.Thengin pookula (Coconut flowers) For Manimatapam (Kathirmandapam) ofHindu nair community, thengin pookula and para with paddy are a must. Pookulais spread over the para. 8.Nagapushpam. Atfirst sight it really appears as miniature phanam (Hood) of a snake. The tree I have seen in the Varkala Janardhanaswamytemple premises. 9.Sankhu pushpam kannezhuthumbol…. Two varieties are there - one withbeautiful yellow centre snow white flowers and other with Blue centresnow-white flowers are commonly seen in Kerala temple gardens. In Tamilnadu Ihave not seen the flower. 10.Kudamulla ppovinum… InMalayalam we say Mulla for Tamil malli. Kudamullais about oval and has more fragrance than the other variety. Mulla is acreeping plant. But as Bonsai it can grow, but flowers would be very less. During Thiruvathirapoochoodal, women in Keralawear jasmine flower positively in hair after bath in the night. 11.Mookkutthi... Mookkuthi is a very small flower tothe size of an ear stud. But has got a good fragrance. It grows as pazchetiactually (Grows its own). Recently I read the flower isused in making ink for mazhiyittu nokkal. (Applyingink on betel leaf and searching lost item etc.) 12.Turmeric flower. Normally turmeric would not haveflower. Recently I read flowering turmeric in a garden near Erode. 13.Thettpoo… For sastha worship and sasthapreethithettippo has more prominence. It would not fade for one or two days. Flowerspluckers in Kerala is a group of people interested in plucking flowers fromsmall hills etc. Normally we entrust it to them to get thetippo. Thetti is abush. It grows without drying for years together. 14.Pookunnithamulla pookkunnasokam… Asokam is a flowering plant growingto heights. I have not seen any other plants growing so high. The flowers are somewhatsimilar to thetti. Asokam is used in temple worship. In Kerala temples Tulasi is used inVishnu, Siva temples. Only flower used during sraadha isTulsi. 15.Chemparathippo.. Probably more colourful attraction iswith chemparatthi. There are many flowers appearingbeautiful like Kasi thetti, Nanthyarvattam, Nalumani PPO etc. while theyblossom. 16.Kalluvazha and Sarpagandhi… The flowers are very colourful forkalluvazha, and pure white like rose for Nishagandhi. Both are attractive by colours. 17.Thovala flower gardens. The farmers as early as 1979 had madeit a business to grow flowers at Thovala, about 5 KMs from Nagerkovil towardsTirunelveli. One can feel the smell from a distance. Most flowers at Chalai bazaar at Trivandrum comesfrom Thovalai. On day to day seeing probably thebiggest flower could be plantain flower. The flower of lady’s finger isyellowish and very beautiful. Similarly of the pumpkins. “Veenapoo” by Kumaran aasan is a famous poem in Malayalam. During my primary 5thclass one girl student very beautifully used to sing a poem from Malayalam textbook – “ Oro malarilum oro thalirilum oti kuzhangenda Netramae nee.. Today I am not able to recollect theauthor. Perhaps readers like Mr Subramonaim Kaippulli matam could morecorrectly write about the author. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1114189971.624825.1613401420343%40mail.yahoo.com.
