A divine tryst with nature

Festivals are not just about rituals but also about our ecology and how to conserve it, writes Arti Das

The one festival that enjoys great reverence and binds communities together across the country is the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi which will be celebrated on August 22 this year. However, this year due to the pandemic the celebrations are subdued and low-key.

This festival, which is held in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, is all about leaves in Goa, as ancestral homes in rural parts of the state, celebrate it in a traditional fashion. Chaturthi is incomplete in Goa without the installation of the wooden matoli — a canopy which is suspended from the ceiling above the Ganesha idol. This canopy is decorated with various fruits, flowers, seeds, tubers, etc. This symbolises the bounty of nature and what it has to offer at this time of the year, as now rains start to subside.

However, along with matoli, another important aspect of this festival is the offering of patri to the lord. Patri is a compilation of various leaves — mainly wild leaves of different shapes, sizes, and of medicinal properties are clubbed together to offer to the deities. These are collected by villagers from farms, gardens, and forested areas, where they are now in abundance due to the monsoon season.

'Pudi' or bundle full of wild leaves

‘Patri’ & ‘Pudi’

Along with the worship of Lord Ganesha, his parents — Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati are also worshipped during this festival. A ceremony known as Tay or Hartalika puja is mostly held a day before Chaturthi. This day is dedicated to Parvati, who is symbolised either by local wildflowers known as harna or by making a pudi or a bundle of wild leaves which are wrapped in Kasal leaves (Alocasia calidora). In the village of Canacona in South Goa, people use wild leaves and in North Goa, mostly flowers are used. This bundle contains leaves and flowers of Impatiens locally known as chiddo, leaves of areca nut, fronds of the coconut palm, tulsi, and also paddy leaves.

Along with this bundle, villagers of Canacona make another one that has 21 different leaves — wild and cultivated for Lord Ganesha. “A majority of these leaves are medicinal. Wild patri (cluster of leaves) are difficult to get as the present generation do not know how to identify them,” says Shubhada Chari, a teacher. Nowadays, these bundles are easily available in the market and that’s how people’s knowledge of identifying and foraging them is dwindling.

However, there are a few like Ashish Prabhugaonkar, assistant professor (Botany) at Dhempe College, Panaji, Goa who is now documenting these leaves as some of these plants have become rare and not much is known about them. “In villages like Mashemin Canacona (where he hails from) most of these leaves are commonly found. But leaves of Suryakant (Indigofera dalzellii) and Shivkant (Crotalaria sp.) are found on lateritic plateaus and Agasti (Sesbania grandiflora) tree is becoming rare,” says Prabhugaonkar.

The number 21 is considered auspicious for Ganesha puja as there’s also a tradition of offering 21 strands of durva (Cynodon dactylon). Some of the leaves used for a bundle of 21 leaves are Bel/Bilva patra (Aegle marmelos); Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum); Nirgundi/Bramhi (Centella asiatica); Waterlily (Nymphaea nouchali); Rui (Calotropis gigantea); Rose; Vad (Ficus benghalensis); Parijatak/Parijat (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis); Ber/Badri (Ziziphus jujuba); Bringaraj (Eclipta prostrata); Durva (Cynodon dactylon); Shami (Prosopis cineraria); Kaner (Cascabela thevetia); Kevada (Pandanus odorifer), Jati-Jasmine; Datura.

It is believed that one who performs the puja has to collect 21 different flowers and leaves and offer with 21 different names of Ganesha. Prabhugaonkar elaborates that these leaves are collected and are then wrapped in the leaves of Arjun (Sterculia urens) tree. Traditionally, masks of Shiva and Parvati are made from the Alocasia leaves and are decorated with white leaves of Dhobi’s tree (Musanda frondosa). Here Shiva is symbolised by coconut and Parvati by pudi, both wrapped in Alocasia leaves.

Leaves of Dhobi's tree (Musanda frondosa), which are also part of Patri in some places in Goa

Use of leaves in cuisine

The humble-looking leaves are not just part of the worship but also of the cuisine during the Chaturthi celebrations. Anjana Amonkar, a caterer from Porvorim in North Goa, explains that in places like Bicholim in North Goa, patoli is made using turmeric leaves on the day of Tay. “These are not the usual patoli which is stuffed with coconut and jaggery. We call it moni patoli as it is without any stuffing and the leaves are layered with rice paste and steamed. Even salt is not added to it,” says Amonkar. The food cooked for Parvati is sans salt because she craved for it when she was pregnant with Lord Ganesha. She further throws light on cooking a vegetable also on this day, which is made from different leafy vegetables. It includes seasonal and local greens. All these leaves are highly nutritional and are rich in antioxidants, zinc, and fibre. The main five leafy vegetables are taikilo (Cassia tora), leaves of Alsane (black-eyed beans), red and white amaranth, and drumstick leaves.

“For this vegetable, leaves of drumstick hold relevance as from this time onwards we start eating these leaves and not before that. This symbolises the importance given to eating local and seasonal food,” says Amonkar.

There’s no hard and fast rule to have these leaves only. It mainly depends on the vegetables which are grown in your kitchen garden in one’s backyard. It can also include leaves of elephant foot yam (cultivated variety), pumpkin, mustard, etc. All this delicious food is then eaten on banana leaves that give its own flavour and is also an eco-friendly option.

This beautiful use of leaves during the festival of Chaturthi makes a valid point that festivities are not just about rituals. It is also about our ecology, understanding its importance, and most importantly working towards its conservation.