Ashoka: A plant that make a woman free of sorrow

[Sukhayu]

Common Name:
Ashoka (Eng.)

Sanskrit Name:
Ashoka- Means without sorrow i.e. it makes a person sorrow less
specially the females and for females, discomfort of menstruation is
the greatest sorrow and Ashoka works on it
Hemapushpa- As its flowers are of golden yellow color
Tamrapallava- As its leaves are having the color of copper

Lt. Name:
Saraca asoca- Leguminosae

Bio energetics:
Rasa (Taste)- Kashaya (Astringent); Tikta (Bitter)
Guna (Characteristics)- Laghu (Light); Ruksha (Rough)
Veerya (Potency)- Sheeta (Cool and calm)
Vipaka (Post digestion effect)- Katu (Pungent)
Prabhava (Special action on human physiology for which we have no
explanation how it works so)- Vedana sthapana (Useful in management of
all painful conditions including spasmodic and congestive pain of
dysmenorrhoea)

To know more visit:
http://www.ayurvedicdietsolutions.com/Ashoka.php

[J.M. Garg]

From Indiantreepix Database:

Saraca asoca (Invalid Syn. S. indica)

Caesalpiniaceae

Sorrowless tree, Sita-Ashok

As per my records, I have pictures of its flowering in last of January'07, in Feb'07 & in the middle of March'07 in Kolkata. I saw it flowering profusely today (26/2/08) in Kolkata. Ritesh is regularly watching its beautiful flowers while on the way to office in Mumbai (22/2/08).  In full bloom in Bangalore right now (28/2/08) as per Ranjini Kamath. Profuse flowering at Ashok Van in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai- Kiran ji. Flowering at Bangalore, Kempu Thota (Lal Bagh)- Apr 2008- Raghu ji.

Trees of Delhi states its flowering in the last week of March, peaking early in April. Beautiful Trees & Shrubs of Calcutta by Sh. R.K. Chakraverty & S.K.Jain states that it flowers from early spring (Feb.- March) to late spring (Feb.-March).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_tree

Saraca asoca (Sita-Ashok or Sorrowless tree) - indiantreepix | Google Groups

some useful links and Ashoka :-) - indiantreepix | Google Groups

Red flowering Tree - Saraca asoca, Ashoka Tree - indiantreepix | Google Groups

For my Birds, Butterflies, Trees, Landscape pictures etc., visit http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/J.M.Garg

[Anand Kumar Bhatt]

To add to the Ashok story Sita when in captivity of Ravan was living in Ashok Vatika. That is why Saraca indica is sometimes called Sita Ashok. This has lovely orange red flowers. I remember in my school days there was a famous essay by Dr. Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, an eminent Hindi writer entiltled 'Ashok ke Phool' in which he wondered about how Ashok is said to have beautiful red flowers when it has only inconspicuous whitish flowers.

The learned man was mixing up between Ashok (Polyalthia longifolia) and Sita Ashok.

akbhatt