Review: Green Pearls of India by V Sundararaju

The author is a retired forest officer of decades’ standing from Tamil Nadu and blogs on the Down To Earth environment website besides having written copiously on his subject in a number of publications. With that knowledgeable background, he describes each tree under these subheads: an introduction followed by habitat and distribution, environmental and economic significance, historical importance, religious and mythological significance, usage (in food, medicine, commerce, art and agriculture) and cultivation practices. In the last, he usefully lists the agricultural institutes across India where new varieties of particular trees may be obtained. He also suggests how best the trees may be used in fields, for instance as windbreaks and green cover.

The trees he details are wood apple, jackfruit, neem, red silk-cotton, flame of the forest, Alexandrian laurel, coconut palm, banyan, Indian fig, peepal, mahua, champaka, mango, bullet wood (bakul, maulsari), cadamba, coral jasmine, screwpine, Indian gooseberry, Indian gum, sandalwood, asoka, sal, trumpet flower, jamun, tamarind, arjuna and ber or jujub.

Be warned upfront though that this book is not a quick read, nor are you obliged to read it in the order of chapters. The wealth of information about each tree needs time to read and digest. Besides practical points, the association of each tree with gods and temples is fascinating and tells us things we may not know, including which of the 27 nakshatra or lunar asterisms in the Indian calendar a tree is associated with. For instance, the wood apple or bilva is linked to the star Chittirai in the Indian zodiac (it is the fourteenth nakshatra of 27). The wood apple is usually thought of as belonging to Lord Shiva and many of us have enjoyed bel sharbat in season or offered a sprig of three-leaved bel to Lord Shiva on Mondays and on Mahashivratri. It was a discovery that the wood apple is also closely associated with Goddess Lakshmi. The author obligingly tells us the story behind it. Meanwhile, the ber, according to Punjabi legend, is the “sorrow-removing tree.” The detail in which the cultural identity of these trees has been thought through by tradition is quite amazing. The author also tells us tidbits of general interest that may delight a quizzard: for example, the jackfruit is the national tree of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and the state tree of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

I turned with great interest to the chapter on the champaka, which is one of my favourite flowers. I mean the golden yellow flower with long, pointed petals and a strong sweet smell, not the white and pink plumeria commonly called “champa” in Delhi-NCR. To the stories in the book, I will add this poignant thought: the champaka features in the Valmiki Ramayana. It is one of the flowers growing around the cottage in Panchavati and must have witnessed the abduction of Sita. There is a piquant saying in Hindi about the champaka: “Champa, tujh mein teen hai, roop, rang aur baas/Karan tujh mein kya hai bhanwar na jaaye paas?”

“Champa, you have the three qualities of form, colour and scent/Why then do bees never come near you?” This is an unsolved botanical mystery, if true. Perhaps a reader could mail the author about it.

Another chapter that I turned to eagerly is the one on the Alexandrian laurel. This was because I had read that it was used by ancient Chola ship-builders to make ships for the blue-water navy that Rajendra Chola sent across the Eastern Seas more than a thousand years ago. Its Sanskrit name is nagchampa and its Tamil name is punnaga. It is said to be beloved to Lord Shiva, like the bel. It was nice to read that the nagchampa is still used for boat-building.

The humble amla or “myrobalan” has its own history. The author tells us of a deeply symbolic act of renunciation and humility in which “half an amla fruit was the final gift from Emperor Ashoka to the Buddhist Sangha. This is illustrated in the Ashokavadana in the following verses: ‘A great donor, the lord of men, the eminent Maurya Ashoka, has gone from being the Lord of Jambudvipa (the Sub-continent) to being the lord of half a myrobalan.’”

Far away out South, we learn that the amla is worshipped as a sacred tree in 20 temples in Tamil Nadu. Further, that about 20 villages in Tamil Nadu and 40 villages in other parts of the country such as Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, have been named after the amla. This is yet more proof, if proof were needed, of the porous cultural unity of India across states, transcending the petty regional politics of the day.

In the chapter on the asoka, sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, we find this beautiful point: “In India, trees are considered like human beings, as if blessed with a soul and a heart that weeps with grief and laughs with joy. It is believed they have feelings and aspirations like mankind.”

We also learn that the late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, hailed as India’s best loved President, “had a dear old friend who shared his official home – a 100-year-old arjuna tree. Dr Kalam said that the tree was like his parents and a living testament of life itself.”

In sum, an informative and also uplifting read, worth acquiring for both institutional and home libraries.

Renuka Narayanan is a journalist and author. Her latest book is ‘Learning from Loss’.

If ever a book needed translation into Hindi and other Indian languages and should be read and discussed on rural community radio, it is Green Pearls of India by V Sundararaju, which describes 27 trees considered sacred in India. The book should also be of interest to those researching biodiversity, ecology and religion. The regular urban reader, in turn, is likely to be charmed by how religion and culture are inseparably married to the land of India through Nature. Students in schools and colleges will find it a mine of interesting and useful information for essays and projects. Priced at ₹595, it is simply written and simply produced, with colour photographs.

The author is a retired forest officer of decades’ standing from Tamil Nadu and blogs on the Down To Earth environment website besides having written copiously on his subject in a number of publications. With that knowledgeable background, he describes each tree under these subheads: an introduction followed by habitat and distribution, environmental and economic significance, historical importance, religious and mythological significance, usage (in food, medicine, commerce, art and agriculture) and cultivation practices. In the last, he usefully lists the agricultural institutes across India where new varieties of particular trees may be obtained. He also suggests how best the trees may be used in fields, for instance as windbreaks and green cover.

The trees he details are wood apple, jackfruit, neem, red silk-cotton, flame of the forest, Alexandrian laurel, coconut palm, banyan, Indian fig, peepal, mahua, champaka, mango, bullet wood (bakul, maulsari), cadamba, coral jasmine, screwpine, Indian gooseberry, Indian gum, sandalwood, asoka, sal, trumpet flower, jamun, tamarind, arjuna and ber or jujub.

Be warned upfront though that this book is not a quick read, nor are you obliged to read it in the order of chapters. The wealth of information about each tree needs time to read and digest. Besides practical points, the association of each tree with gods and temples is fascinating and tells us things we may not know, including which of the 27 nakshatra or lunar asterisms in the Indian calendar a tree is associated with. For instance, the wood apple or bilva is linked to the star Chittirai in the Indian zodiac (it is the fourteenth nakshatra of 27). The wood apple is usually thought of as belonging to Lord Shiva and many of us have enjoyed bel sharbat in season or offered a sprig of three-leaved bel to Lord Shiva on Mondays and on Mahashivratri. It was a discovery that the wood apple is also closely associated with Goddess Lakshmi. The author obligingly tells us the story behind it. Meanwhile, the ber, according to Punjabi legend, is the “sorrow-removing tree.” The detail in which the cultural identity of these trees has been thought through by tradition is quite amazing. The author also tells us tidbits of general interest that may delight a quizzard: for example, the jackfruit is the national tree of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and the state tree of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

I turned with great interest to the chapter on the champaka, which is one of my favourite flowers. I mean the golden yellow flower with long, pointed petals and a strong sweet smell, not the white and pink plumeria commonly called “champa” in Delhi-NCR. To the stories in the book, I will add this poignant thought: the champaka features in the Valmiki Ramayana. It is one of the flowers growing around the cottage in Panchavati and must have witnessed the abduction of Sita. There is a piquant saying in Hindi about the champaka: “Champa, tujh mein teen hai, roop, rang aur baas/Karan tujh mein kya hai bhanwar na jaaye paas?”

“Champa, you have the three qualities of form, colour and scent/Why then do bees never come near you?” This is an unsolved botanical mystery, if true. Perhaps a reader could mail the author about it.

Another chapter that I turned to eagerly is the one on the Alexandrian laurel. This was because I had read that it was used by ancient Chola ship-builders to make ships for the blue-water navy that Rajendra Chola sent across the Eastern Seas more than a thousand years ago. Its Sanskrit name is nagchampa and its Tamil name is punnaga. It is said to be beloved to Lord Shiva, like the bel. It was nice to read that the nagchampa is still used for boat-building.

The humble amla or “myrobalan” has its own history. The author tells us of a deeply symbolic act of renunciation and humility in which “half an amla fruit was the final gift from Emperor Ashoka to the Buddhist Sangha. This is illustrated in the Ashokavadana in the following verses: ‘A great donor, the lord of men, the eminent Maurya Ashoka, has gone from being the Lord of Jambudvipa (the Sub-continent) to being the lord of half a myrobalan.’”

Far away out South, we learn that the amla is worshipped as a sacred tree in 20 temples in Tamil Nadu. Further, that about 20 villages in Tamil Nadu and 40 villages in other parts of the country such as Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, have been named after the amla. This is yet more proof, if proof were needed, of the porous cultural unity of India across states, transcending the petty regional politics of the day.

In the chapter on the asoka, sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, we find this beautiful point: “In India, trees are considered like human beings, as if blessed with a soul and a heart that weeps with grief and laughs with joy. It is believed they have feelings and aspirations like mankind.”

We also learn that the late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, hailed as India’s best loved President, “had a dear old friend who shared his official home – a 100-year-old arjuna tree. Dr Kalam said that the tree was like his parents and a living testament of life itself.”

In sum, an informative and also uplifting read, worth acquiring for both institutional and home libraries.

Renuka Narayanan is a journalist and author. Her latest book is ‘Learning from Loss’.