mAdhavI-wearing UrvazI

[Guest guest]

Geoffrey Parrinder, Sexual morality in the world's

regions, Oxford:One World, p. 22 describes the

wooing of Arjuna by the nymph Urvasi.

He describes the scene vividly, and

talks of Urvasi's hair "full of jasmine flowers".

 

He gives references Mahabharata 1.66; 1.120; 3.45

for the Arjuna-Urva'sii episode.

 

Does, by any chance, the MBh epic use the flower

mAdhavI as worn by the apsaras, urvasi?

 

Thanks,

N. Ganesan

 

PS:

The Skt. mAdhavI, the wild jasmine is called mullai flower

in Tamil symbolizing the pastoral landscape. Krishna's

gopikAs and his love affairs, Beloved wives pining for

reunion, and so on. Cattle returning home signifies this longing, ....

 

In CilappatikAram epic, the gaNikA's name is mAdhavi,

and Kovalan (a cowherd) leaves his wife to live with mAdhAvi.

Nayars' tAlikeTTu kalyANam ritual involves keeping the

tAli before mullai bushes. Interestingly, viRali dancers

who are the go-betweens for the hero and, wife or prostitutes,

wear little or no clothes (long descriptions of the viRalis

are sensual). But viRalis sport mullai flowers, and they are

said to be agents for chastity in tolkAppiyam grammar.

The mAdhavi flowers seem to be remnants of ancient matriarchial

systems.