Leaves from heaven

To this day, folks remove the stalks and tips of betel leaves before chewing them. Why though?

While all the places mentioned in Vyasa’s Mahabharata are located in the northern parts of the country, this folk version, clearly conceived by a bard with an agricultural background, is firmly rooted in the Old Mysore soil. The list of things Arjuna brings from heaven include crops like ragi and the fragrant ‘avare beans’ exclusively grown in the region. Pandavas even speak the dialect of Kannada spoken in the region.

Hence the play on the word ‘avare’. Also interesting is how the bard explains the custom of nine grains being used to represent the nine planets during ‘Navagraha Pooja’. Konthyamma shed profuse tears when Gandhari celebrated the Gajagowri feast without inviting her. Arjuna wiped her tears and said he would bring Airawatha from the world of Indra for her to worship. He built a massive flight of steps with his arrows connecting the earth to heaven.

Indra’s royal elephant, Airawatha, the wish-giving tree, Kalpavriksha and the divine cow, Kamadhenu, heavenly maidens Rambe, Urvashi and Menaka, along with all the gods and guardians of eight directions, descended to earth, bringing with them all sorts of things.

The nine planets brought nine grains for the feast. Beans and lentils of various kinds, ragi, wheat, rice and mustard, green gram, black gram and sesame seeds, sheaves of millets of every kind, turmeric, ginger, roots and tubers, and a great variety of vegetables, greens and shoots of different types, fruits and berries of a great many trees — all these they brought from heaven down to earth.

Konthyamma celebrates the Gajagowri feast in great grandeur. When the meal got over, it was time to gift coins to the Brahmins along with betel leaves and nuts. But there were no betel leaves or nuts. While they wondered who had the guts to fetch these from heaven, Lord Krishna’s servant Adishesha, the snake, offered to do it and left for heaven at once. Seeing Paramathma’s attendant in heaven, Devendra inquired what the matter was. Adishesha explained his errand. Devendra gave him betel nuts from his garden.

He also gave Adishesha a creeper of light-coloured betel leaves, with camphor, clear lime, cloves, cardamom and peppercorns, nutmeg, cinnamon and other fragrant spices, along with rose petals dipped in sugar paste — all the things that are chewed along with betel. To this day, folks remove the stalks and tips of betel leaves before chewing them because Adishesha brought betel leaves from heaven, holding them by the stalk in his mouth, and they carry the stain of his spittle. Since it was a snake who brought the betel creeper, it has come to be called ‘Nagavalli’ (snake creeper).

Once the feast got over, Airawatha, Kamadhenu and Kalpavriksha, had to go back along with the heavenly maidens. All grains and greens, fruits, seeds and vegetables had to go back too. The folks who had come to the feast picked a seed of each fruit, grain and vegetable from heaven so that they could sow them on this earth. Dharmaraja asked his mother ‘Which seed shall I pick?’ Handing him a fragrant avare bean, she said, ‘As long as this avare continues to be grown, Pandavas too will remain on this earth.

Their truthful ways, their values, and their love of justice will survive on this soil. I shall visit the earth in the avare season to hear folks say “Pandavas avare! Pandavas are still here!” Therefore, my dear son, keep this avare bean safe’.

Translated by Laxmi Chandrashekar

The author, a retired professor of English, is a well-known theatre and television artiste and an award-winning translator.

Folktales from the Mahabharata is a monthly column that features lesser-known episodes from ‘Janapada Mahabharata’ sung by eminent folk-artiste Bettada Beedu Siddhashetty and published by Dr P K Rajashekara