flower of gods' garden

Paarijaatha - a delicate, fragrant, cute little flower..

Paarijaatha is my most favorite flower I guess (though I like colorful carnations a lot). Fragrance of paarijaatha is something out-of-the-world. Moreover, paarijaatha brings lots of memories of my childhood. We have a paarijaatha tree at home. Throughout the year this tree is decorated with fresh-looking paarijaatha flowers early in the morning, which is a treat to the eyes! Paarijaatha flower blossoms at evenings, filling fragrance in the air … I am getting reminded of those good ol’ days during deepavali n uththaana dwaadashi evenings when my father used to do tulasi-pooja for which me n my sis used to collect these just-blossomed paarijaatha flowers. Voice of my father chanting “suvarNa pushpam samarpayaami…” still fresh in my mind.

I am also getting reminded of a song my sister used to sing often - “munjaavinali hasiru hullu makamallinali paarijaatha hoova haasidanthe…” I don’t remember the lyrics further n name of the poet, it’s a beautiful song but (will ask my sis abt it when I get back home).

I know mythological stories about paarijaatha too; like why paarijaatha blossoms only in the evenings. Here the story goes…

Paarijaatha was in ‘nandanavana’, Indra’s garden, it was truly flower of gods’ garden, n was not available on earth. Once when Lord Krishna visited devaloka with his family, Rukmini sees it n she wants it in her garden too. True to his reputation of being mischievous thief, Krishna steals the paarijaatha plant n gets it for Rukmini (I don’t know why he chose to steal it; he could’ve asked Indra for it). Anyways, Rukmini is happy with it. But her happiness doesn’t last long, as the tree grows in slanted position n gets inclined on Sathyabhama’s compound which was adjacent to Rukmini’s; causing all the flowers to fall on Sathyabhama’s compound. Rukmini gets angry with the tree n cursed paarijaatha that it will blossom only at evenings.

That’s an interesting story, but it’s true that paarijaatha tree is always in a slanted position; I don’t know why. Also people (in south canara) believe that they have to steal the plant from others’ place (as Krishna did) if they want one for them. They believe that if they get it with the consent of the owner, the plant doesn’t survive in their garden.

In south canara, almost all homes have paarijaatha trees at the end of their courtyards. I have seen few trees in Indiranagar area though they are rare in Bangalore. I enter into a kinda time-machine every time the breeze filled with fragrance of paarijaatha flower blows on me when I take evening walks in Indiranagar, the time-machine in which I go 15 years back n relive my childhood!!

ps: pictures are not mine, got them from net.