Taste of Life

DR. V. RAMAKANTHA is a former Indian Forest Service officer and member of the Green Initiative at the Heartfulness Center at Kanha Shanti Vanam in India. Having spent most of his working life living in forests and jungles, in tune with the natural world, he shares his knowledge about some of the amazing medicinal plants of India, starting with Parijata, the Queen of the Night.

- DR. V. RAMAKANTHA

Queen of the night

Botanical Name: Nyctanthes arbor-tristis L.

Family: Oleaceae

Common Names: Night Jasmine, Coral Jasmine

Parijata is known as Coral Jasmine owing to its snow-white flowers with coral-red tubes. This small ornamental tree, with its heavenly scented flowers and drooping branches, is found all over the Indian subcontinent, with a special name in every language. It flowers almost the whole year-round and is known as Night Jasmine because the delicate blooms open by evening and falling off soon after, leaving a carpet of flowers in the morning. This gives it the epithet “Queen of the Night.”

Mythology

Rajani-hasa, “the one who forms the night’s smile,” is one of the Sanskrit names for Parijata, and there is a story behind this name. Parijata was a beautiful princess who fell in love with Surya Deva, the Sun God. Initially, Surya Deva, who rode the fiery chariot in the sky from east to west, did not take a fancy to the princess, but over time, he was won over by the single-minded devotion of Parijata, and he left the sky and came down to Earth to spend some loving time with her.

Now, the Earth was not a conducive environment for Surya Deva so, after spending a few seasons, he left for his original abode, albeit reluctantly. Heartbroken, princess Parijata tried to follow her lover, but the intensity of the heat from the Sun God burnt her to ashes.