The Tamala - Garcinia xanthochymus

[Subrata Mahapatra]

1. The long search for the Tamala - the most famous but the least known tree - has ended. Famous because it is glorified by celebrated poets of sixth century, Kalidasa, down to twentieth century poet Tagore. For devotees of Krishna this is sacred as it epitomizes the divine personality. Such a famous tree is not known to anybody whom i come across.

Recently i have seen this tree in the Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, quite comfortably thanks to the courtesy of the Director, Dr. Debnath. I am attaching a few photos of the tree and its parts provided by Basant K. Singh.

I am adding a synopsis of the long investigation extended to five years. If any one is interested he or she may read the following :-

It all started in a get-together. A friend was reading the Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna (Kathamrita). Tamala was mentioned in the text. I asked my friends-' do you know Tamala'. Nobody knows. The hostess took out a dictionary and found the name - 'it is a tree similar to Gaab' [Eng.Gaub persimon - Diospyros peregrina] The search for Tamala began. In a reciprocal request i urged Garg ji to help me. He put a notice. Information poured in from many, in particular from Dr Pankaj Oudhia.All these boil down to Cinnamomum tamala. Its leaf called Tejpata is daily used in culinary preparation. Interestingly in Gujrati it is called 'tamal patra'. This tree grows wild in tropical and subtropical Himalayas, Khasi and Jaintia hills.

Ayurvedacharya Shibkali Bhattacharya is an authority on plants. He specified Tamala is Garcinia xanthochymus(syn. G. tinctoria). Sometime back i brought this to the notice of our group members. Its Sanskrit, Hindi, and Bengali name is Tamala, Eng.name Sour mangosteen,false mangosteen, Gambose.   Sanskrit , Hindi or Bengali namesake may also refer to other species or genus viz. G. morella, Cinnamomum tamala, Diospyros montana.

 The sacred Tamala of Vrindavan is yet to be conclusively identified. George Harrison and Srila Prabhupada wrote some fifty pages on Tamal and Vrindavan. They say 'Radaharani in separation was embracing the Tamala tree. - - And they say that in Vrindavan only there are four trees left.' It is possible. Since the time of Sri Chaitanya pilgrims from different parts took a plant on their return.One Swami of Belur Math brought a plant from vrindavan some thirty years back.I took a twig and put it before the members. Experts say it belongs to Diospyros montana. Interestingly its Sanskrit name is Tamala. Since the fruit or flower of this particular tree not seen a conclusion could not be arrived at.

[Pankaj Oudhia]

Thanks for reopening the thread. Few months back I received Sanskrit Pandulipi (Manuscript) from Krishna Devotee of Nepal which describes Tam, Tamal, Tamala, Tamalini, Tamalak, Tamal Patra, Tamali with different Shlokas. From reading it, it seems that neither Garcinia nor Diospyros is suitable candidate for it. Sacred Tamala was once used in Yagyas specially Soma Yagyas. And also in Yagyas for Healing.  

regards

Pankaj Oudhia 

[Pankaj Oudhia]

In continuation of previous post.

Bhartendu Harishchandra has written about Tamal Tree

तरनि तनूजा तट तमाल तरुवर बहु छाए।

झुके कूल सों जल परसन हित मनहु सुहाए।

regards

Pankaj Oudhia 

[J.M. Garg]

Thanks, Bimal ji.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bimal Sar kar <bima...@gmail.com>
Date: 27 April 2015 at 19:30
Subject: Re: [efloraofindia:115694] The Tamala - Garcinia xanthochymus
To: "J.M. Garg" <jmg...@gmail.com>

Thank you Gargji.I saw TAMAL in my childhood in East Pakistan( Now Bangladesh ).I started searching for the scientific name of the tree in1993 when I was in Lucknow. The Useful Plants of India ( CSIR publication ) has all the names of TAMAL as mentioned by Mr Subrata Mahapatra. In 1994 I attended a WWF work shop at Ashoka Hotel in Delhi,where some people from Brindaban brought a sapling of Tamal. Immediately my mind reeled back to my childhood memory, as the sapling resembles my TAMAL. Unfortunately the delegate members from Brindaban could not tell the scientific name.There are two trees at this place ( Cooch Behar) .One big tree is in the famous Madn-Mohan temple compound.Everybody knows it as TAMAL.There is another tree at Tufangunj in the compound of a temple.These trees are definitely Garcinia.I know many Garcinia species which I have seen at Assam.TAMAL of ancient and modern literature is definitely Diospyros montana( according to The Useful Plants of India this tree in Sanskrit is TUMALA .).

Regards,

Bimal

On 27 April 2015 at 13:31, J.M. Garg <jmg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Forwarding as requested.

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg

'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.

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Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'.

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg

'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.

For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group (largest in the world- more than 2400 members & 2,00,000 messages on 9.9.14) or Efloraofindia website (with a species database of more than 10,000 species & 2,00,000 images). Winner of Wipro-NFS Sparrow Awards 2014 for efloraofindia. 

Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'.

[J.M. Garg]

Thanks, Mahapatra ji.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Subrata Mahapatra <sub.ma...@gmail.com>
Date: 28 April 2015 at 08:23
Subject: Re: [efloraofindia:115694] The Tamala - Garcinia xanthochymus
To: "J.M. Garg" <jmg...@gmail.com>

Dear Garg ji,

Many-Many- MANY THANKS.

I did a bit of study on Tamaal a decade ago. It is your co-operation which helped me to get a lot of information through  your members. Thanks to all of them.

Ultimately it is Dr Basant Singh who took me to the Tamal tree in the Botanical Garden and later sent me the snaps i attached. 

This brief account dated 5/6/12 is the gist of my effort at that time which was lost to me, You have revived that. Accept my grateful appreciation.

On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 1:31 PM, J.M. Garg <jmg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Forwarding as requested.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Subrata Mahapatra <sub.ma...@gmail.com>

Date: 6 May 2012 at 12:07
Subject: [efloraofindia:115694] The Tamala - Garcinia xanthochymus
To: indian...@googlegroups.com

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg

'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.

For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group (largest in the world- more than 2400 members & 2,00,000 messages on 9.9.14) or Efloraofindia website (with a species database of more than 10,000 species & 2,00,000 images). Winner of Wipro-NFS Sparrow Awards 2014 for efloraofindia. 

Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'.

[greenearth]

I came across this  interesting thread which  highlights  and was struck by how relevant this discussion is to modern situation also.

What's in a name ?  Plenty of course, since the id is coded into the binomial.  

In ancient literature quite often same or similar names were used ( in different context) for different plants: Thus 

From published name lists  on IBIN   and from the Sanskrit 

 TamAla   तमाल   Garcinia xanthoxylum and G.morella . : ( as concluded by Mahapatra-ji)

   Kalaskandha  कालस्कन्ध   : Diospyros melano.: &/  OR Ficus glomeratus

or

तमालपत्त्रCinnamomum tamal:   

तमालपत्त्र :  Leaf of C.tamala or G.xanthochymus/morella

The id of the plant/twig brought by Swami by Mahapatra-ji has been identified as Diospyros sp.