The red aSOka flower is a spring flower, celebrated in classical Indian literature. It seems the very beautiful women used to do the honours of the first sod when aSOka was planted. They were supposed to flower as prettily as those young women. Here is the ornamental letter A and the aSOka flower. Enjoy!
Regards! - mOhana
In kAlidAsA's RtusaMhAram, you will find the following poem:
aa mUlatO vidrumarAgatAmraM
sapallavaM pushpachayaM dadhAnAH
kurvatyaSOkA hRdayaM saSOkaM
nirIkshyamANA navayauvanAnAm
From top to bottom
the trees are resplendant
with the copper red flower bunches
Alas, the joy-giving aSOkA blooms
are filling with sorrow
the hearts of the love-lorn young ones
The aSOka flower is also one of the five flower-arrows of manmatha.
These flowers are coral red. Of course, we all know that sItA spent her
time in the aSOkavana as a prisoner of rAvaNa. It is also called vanjula
in Sanskrit. In one of jayadEva's ashTapadis (haririha mugdha vadhUnikarE)
there is a mention of manjula vanjula!
Here are some patterns with an idealised aSOka flower.
The spring is around the corner, is it not?
Regards! - mOhana
