6/18/12

Strobilanthes

Kunthiana

Flowers

in Sangam

Ta

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, Strobilanthes Kunthiana This is a mountain shrub that blooms once in 12 years.

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6/18/12

Strobilanthes

Kunthiana

Flowers

in Sangam

Ta

July 2011

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Kurinji malar will bloom again in 2018. It is also called Kurinjipoo and Neelakurinji. It can grow only in elevations over
6,000 feet. It is the mountain flower par excellence.

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Kurinjimalar is described extensively in Sangam literature in Kurunjipattu, MaduraiKanchi and Akananuru. It belongs to the
Acanthaceae family. This flower is what gives the name Nilagiri to the Ooty hills. Strobilanthes has been derived from two
Greek words meaning a flower relating to resembling a cone, that is cone-head. Kunthiana has been derived from the
River Kunthi which flows through the Silent Valley National Park in Kerala.
The Kurinji plant can be seen in Tamil Nadu in the Ooty and Kodaikanal hills. In Kerala, they can be seen in the Munnar and
Idukki areas. The Kurinji plant is a tall bush and can grow upto 10 feet. Its clustered blooms can be seen between August
and November. It dies after blooming, and re-seeds and blooms again in twelve years.

This thinai is named after the Kurinji flower It is Mountains and adjoining lands. Named after the kurinji flower that
blooms once in 12 years in mountain slopes. Kurinji and Kanthal flowers grow in the mountains. Murugan is the god of the
kurinji land, and bears, tigers and elephants, parrots and peacocks live there. Wild rice, millet, and tubers are grown. Sandal
wood trees abound. Honey collection and millet raising is done.
,
are where people live. Springs and
waterfalls abound. Music is created with
and
.
The subject of the poems are usually the secret meeting of lovers, which might be at the millet field, or at night when the
heroine slips out of the house evading her mother, and the mother suspects that her daughter is up to mischief.
This thinai signifies mountains, night times, cool seasons with morning dew, peacocks, parrots, monkeys, elephants,
horses, bulls, waterfall, jackfruits, bamboo, hill tribes, guarding and harvesting millet and above all lovers union. The most
beautiful love poetry in Sangam literature, is in the kurinji thinai.

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Larger than earth

higher than sky,
harder to measure than the waters,
is my love for him
whose land has hillsides of black-stalked kurinji flowers
that yield rich honey.
Translated by Dr. George Hart

larger than the land,

higher than the sky,

deeper than the

immeasurable water, slopes,

-with kurinji flowers on black stalks, rich yield of honey,

makes,
friendship of man from that country

(61-64)

(299-300)

(611-613)

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Strobilanthes

Kunthiana

Flowers

in Sangam

Ta

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The rain clouds fall on the fearful wide lands in the tall peaks,
and swell the springs.
Black-stemmed kurinji puts out beautiful delicate flowers
that look like houses in an artists painting.
My man from the country where fragrant honey
is produced,
does not love me anymore and behaves like a stranger,
even though I love him.
Mother has invited the velan to listen to the oracle
on our sand-spread front yard.
Let us ask him to tell the truth. Translated by Vaidehi

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Ta

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Flowers

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Strobilanthes

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