Tree of life

Long revered by tribes in central India, the Mahua tree may be India's next gift to the world. A sacred constant, it nourishes, heals and now finds new life.

- By VASUDHA RAI.

An immortal flower, a sacred tree, and entire lives entwined in its shade.

For the tribes of central India, including the Santal, Gond and Baiga communities, the mahua tree is no ordinary plant. It is a living deity, revered not out of blind faith but because, for centuries, it has sustained life in times of scarcity. Its nectar-rich flowers were once the difference between hunger and survival, bartered for grain or dried to last through natural disasters that destroyed crops.

Much like hemp, mahua is a remarkable cash crop—every part has a use. From its seeds flows a lush oil; the flowers transform into natural sugar or can be fermented into an intoxicating liquor; the leaves fold into eco-plates; the bark and branches are utilised by Ayurveda and folk medicine. No surprise, then, that it’s known as kalpavriksha. A wish-fulfilling tree. But unlike hemp, which is slowly finding favour through tightly regulated cultivation and wellness buzz, mahua remains rooted in forest life—used, revered, but rarely acknowledged beyond the communities that have kept it alive.