The Fragrant Beauty

It is when the sun shines down that these beauties begin to show up. One of the most notorious blooms, it's d in almost all of the ancient lore, especially in Purânas (Ancient lore). People used this to define whiteness and purity. The poets used it to describe parts of body, like “…her fingernails were like a row of Jâtî flowers…” (from Brahma Purâna) for example. Any city described in Ancient lore would say that the city was beautified with Jâti plants. This flower is dear to Lord Vishnu (one of the Hindu Trinity Gods) and it is stated in Brahma Purâna that Lord Narasimha (Half man-Half lion – one of the ten famous incarnations of Vishnu) should be worshipped by offering Jâtî flowers.

Sisira, before departing would begin nurturing these plants, letting them be in full bloom by the time Vasanta arrives. It is no doubt that Jasmine was used as an Aphrodisiac! No matter how many fragrant flowers you come across, Jasmine never fails to attract your attention towards it.

I fell in love with this species and thought it’s a must have in Plantville. As you all know I did get two varieties of it and began giving out buds by the end of the Dewy season and is now constantly blooming with the arrival of Spring.

Remember the Ol’ Hag? Yes, yes. Iruvâkshî. She after all turned out not to be Iruvâkshî but just another variety of Jâtî! I was fooled, but hey! I’m not disappointed all the same. By the ways, Iruv-... oops! I mean, the Ol’ Hag Jâtî did open up and spoke to me (which deserves an individual post) about one of the inhabitants of Plantville.

Her roommate was a generous gift of our neighbor who turned out to be similar to the one featuring the previous post. Yes, Raji Muthukrishnan and Shailaja guessed it right. It’s the Arabian jasmine – ‘Grand Duke of Tuscany’. Congratulations you two!

It has healing properties other than just being fragrant.

Its flowers are known to encourages goodness and harmony – which in Sanskrit is called a Sâttva guna (quality of goodness).

In traditional Âyurveda, it’s used to reduce fevers and to strengthen the immune system.

The trick with Jasmine is to get established in its place, but once it does so, it’d grow into a forest before you remember when you planted it. Without flower food or fertilizer, you’d see that your Jasmine would only grow into a thick forest of foliage with no sign of flowers. I’ve always wondered why the Jasmine at my Aunt’s never flowered! It’s been in her front yard for more than five years and I’ve never seen it blooming (neither has she!). I recently learned that it’s similar to Hibiscus. No flower food or no fertilizer, no blooms. In ancient times people used to feed it with cow’s urine and dung (cow’s urine for good foliage growth and fight diseases and dung for flowers).

In the famous poem of an India Poet named Jayadeva, he says (through Râdhâ’s – lover of Krishna words),

“O’ friend! The Spring is fragrant with the gentle scent of Mâdhavî (Hiptage) flowers, Mâlikâ (Double Jasmine), and Jâtî (Jasmine) and would bewilder the minds of even the sages! Now, what can be told of the young folk? The Spring is the kinsman of those youngsters.”

This is an extract of Jayadeva’s famous poem called Gîta Govindam, where Râdhâ complains to her friend about Krishna sporting with other cowherd women and ignoring her.

These flowers were used by Ancient Chinese to make Tea. These flowers were placed beside the green tea to let them absorb the scent.

Oh, I can speak forever about this beauty, but work beckons. See you all soon, until then sink yourselves in its dashing beauty!

Arabian Jasmine 'Maid of Orleans' - Jasminum sambac var. 'Maid of Orleans' - Jâtî

Arabian Jasmine 'Belle of India' - Jasminum sambac var. 'Belle of India' - Jâtî

Arabian Jasmine 'Grand Duke Of Tuscany' - Jasminum sambac var. 'Grand Duke Of Tuscany' - Jâtî