The mistletoe, the pomegranate, the Ashoka tree, the bael and several other members of the plant kingdom have acquired an important place across religions. Yogesh Pawar finds out why
Abrahamic, non-Abrahamic or Animistic. From time immemorial plants have played a role in rituals – often symbolic and in some instances practical – in creating and sustaining world-views. Such religious notions then help form the collective world-view of practitioners of a religion. These hand-me-downs have then been codified in metaphors, parables and mythologies from generation to generation, sometimes even through integration with daily activities (like bathing, eating, etc.) with plants, plant products or parts that came up regularly for the ancestors who codified these belief systems and practices.
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Now down the line the same significance is attached to a plant occasionally or as part of daily ritual/prayer. Such plants are seen as holy and integral to worshipping certain deities. From conserving such holy plants, their over exploitation to the idea of keeping certain lands completely untouched by humans to help preserve the last few, religions leaves a lasting impact on the plant kingdom.
Expert speak
Botanist Dr Suchandra Dutta, who teaches at Mumbai's RD National College, says she is not surprised religions and civilisations across the world give so much importance to plants and trees. "Knowing fully well that religion will make it difficult to ignore or transgress the celebration of plants for rituals and socio-cultural reason, our ancestors created this system," she says and adds, "Each and every such plant is actually mircaulously beneficial as traditional schools of medicine bear out."
Poinsettia (Christianity)
For a plant which came to India from Mexico via the US, it's amazing how easily its taken to this country. Traditionally poinsettias (named after the US ambassador to Mexico Joel Roberts Poinsett, who brought the plant out of Mexico in 1925) seems to suited to a tropical climate it seems to love the winter. Which is good considering it arrives in time for Christmas decorations. While the actual flowers are small, greenish yellow stubs, the leaves bunched around them, which can assume various hues of crimson, orange and red, is what makes them such a big attraction. While a school of thought likes to believe that the the red leaves together look like the Star of Bethlehem, there are cynics who say this is a creation of the American poinsettia industry, which florists and gardeners world over have been quick to catch up with.
Pomegranate (Zoroastrianism)
The pomegranate is used for religious purposes in Iran and India. It is referred to as hadhanaepat in the Avesta, and also mentioned in the Vendidad.
Since the pomegranate is an evergreen tree, it is a symbol of immortality, and so it is mandatory to have any part of the fruit, in rituals, generally done for the Fravashis – either living or dead.
Leaves of pomegranate are chewed during the Nahan ritual. Its twigs are pounded with Haoma twigs in the Yasna, Visperad and Videvdad rituals. In the Jashan, Afringan and Farokhshi rituals, a slice of the fruit is kept in offering.
(WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
Meswak or Pilu tree (Islam)
Baghdadi scholar of the late Abbāsid period Muḥibb al-Dīn Ibn al-Najjār (1183–1246) says: “A salat (prayer) offered after one has used miswak is 70 times superior to the salat offered without it.” While Ahmad ibn `Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad ibn Ishāq ibn Mūsā ibn Mahrān al-Mihrānī al-Asbahānī al-Ahwal al-Ash`arī al-Shāfi`ī, 1038) a medieval Persian Muslim scholar says: “Your mouths are the pathways of the Qur’an, so clean them with a meswak.”
This establishes how important the meswak plant is for Muslims. They not only believe in its dental health benefits, but feel “it purifies the mouth, the pathway of the Qur’an al-karim, gives the mouth a nice smell, increases the eloquence of speech, makes the Devil distraught, multiplies one’s rewards (thawab), cures the bile, relieves the veins in the head, soothes a headache, and causes the soul to leave the body easily.” Particularly used in the Holy Month of Ramzan, the meswak was what the Prophet always carried.
Sugarcane (Hinduism)
The end of the winter solstice is an important milestone on the Hindu calendar celebrated as a harvest festival across India. Hinduism sees this time of the year as one of enlightenment, peace, prosperity and happiness followed by a period of cold, darkness and sorrow. Known as Makar Sankranti across several parts of Central and Western India, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Lohri in Punjab, the occasion sees people give sugarcane along with sweets made of til (sesame) and jaggery.
While the rich nourishing agent, til when consumed with jaggery helps digestion and fortifies the body, sugarcane strengthens the stomach, cuts down acidity, improves the efficiency of kidneys, liver and reproductive organs.
Many gods and goddesses are depicted through mythology as holding sugarcane, which symbolises firmness, straightforwardness with a core of sweetness within.