पारिजात (हरसिंगार) के फूल - Night Jasmine flower

The sacred tree that came out of 'Churning of Ocean"

                  

Parijat /Harsingar flower

                

          This flower is favorite of Vishnu and Lakshmi and their avatars. It is said to be a divine flower which tree used to be in the heaven. It came out of the famous "Churning of ocean by gods and demons" according to the Hindu mythology. Like most of other good things that came out of this event, this tree too was taken hold of by gods. King of gods, Indra, brought it to heaven (Swarglok) where its lovely flowers spread beneath the tree to give pleasure to gods. It was brought to earth by God Krishna on request of one of his queens, Satyabhama. 

The story behind it is thus -

Parijat / Harsingar Tree

          Once Narada Muni came to Dwarka where God Krishna ruled. Narada was coming from heaven and he gifted some Parijat flowers to God Krishna that he had brought from there. Krishna in turn gave these lovely and beautiful flowers to his beloved Patrani (Designated queen) Rukmini. Narada gave this news to Krishna's other queen Satyabhama. She got jealous and asked Krishna to bring the Parijat tree to her so that she be one up to Rukmini. Krishna explained her in many ways that it is not good to bring the tree from heaven but she would not accept it. Finally he agreed and went to heaven to bring this tree but Indra was not ready to give it to Krishna. They fought and Krishna defeated Indra. He brought Parijat tree to earth and gave it to queen Satyabhama. It is said that due the selfless devotion of queen Rukmini to Krishna, he would not let her down. So he planted the  tree in Satyabhama's backyard in such away that she had only the tree as demanded but the flowers used to fall in Rukmini's backyard.

The flower and its name

    

          It is known by many names of which Hindi name Parijat (पारिजात) and similar sounding names are popular in south Indian languages. There is another story about this name and making of its tree. It says that there was a princess named Parijataka who wanted to marry God Sun but he was not interested in her. Dejected she gave up her "prana" and died. After her cremation she rose from her ashes in the form of a tree that was named after her as Parijat. Since she was not able to see the Sun during the day who was her love, so the Parijat tree flowered at night and shed the flowers before the day as tears. That is why it is also call a 'tree of sorrow' by the westerners. The brightness of the flowers decrease as the day advances.

           Other popular name in Hindi is Harsingar (हरसिंगार) which is derived from the word "Hari-Shringar (हरि-श्रृंगार)". Hari means God Vishnu or his avatars Ram and Krishna while Shringar means 'to adorn'. Since Hari likes this flower very much and adorn himself with it, hence the name. In some Hindi dialects even Harsingar has been shortened to singar and pronounced as singhara flower (सिंघारा फूल).  

             In Bengali it is Shefali and Shiuli while Assamese call it Sewali. In English it is called Coral Jasmine or Night flowering Jasmine. 

             The Parijat flowers are white with orange-red center, small in size and orange stem. They flower in clusters. Though in Hindu tradition the flowers dropped on the ground are not offered to gods, but these Parijat flowers are exception to this rule. These are picked up from the ground to keep with other flowers of worship. The ground around a Parijat tree is kept clean and where possible it is wiped with the cow-dung paste.   

             The Parijat flowers are offered to God Shiva too. There is an example of Shiva worship with these flowers in Mahabharata. There it is said that Pandava prince Arjuna brought this tree from Indra for his mother Kunti who used to offer its flower to Shiva. As 'Hari' means Vishnu similarly 'Har' means Shiva. From this point of view the 'Har-singar' may mean decoration of Shiva.         

                 At some places the Parijat tree is also described as Kalpataru in Hindu mythology. Kalpataru means a tree that fulfills wishes of a person who demands something under it. But some other trees are also said to be Kalpataru, one of them is a variety of 'Baobab' tree.    

Medicinal value of Parijat tree

          Nearly all parts of the tree has medicinal qualities. The leaves are well known to possess  Antibacterial, Anthelmintic, Anti-inflammatory, Hepatoprotective, Immunopotential, Anti-pyretic, Antioxidant and Anti-fungal properties. The flowers have Diuretic, Antioxidant, Anti-filarial and Sedative properties. Similar medicinal values are found in its bark, seeds and stem.                                   

                                        

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