Parijaat Tree

Everybody and anybody would admire the beauty of Parijaat tree, the beautiful flowers with a an orange stalk and white petals that bloom in the late evening and night and by morning they come off the tree and are spread all around it.  It has an exquisite fragrance which encompasses all your surrounding. This tree is a specie of Night flowering Jasmine and is native to South and South East Asia.



In our Mythology, Parijaat is the heavenly tree, tree of the Gods.  And it came into this world during the Samudra Manthan and because of its sheer beauty it was planted in the heavens by Lord Indra as the Kalpa Vriksha.  Lord Krishna is credited to have brought it to the land of mortals
and first planted it in Dwarka.

These really are the flowers of the Gods and the Gods, the only flowers, which could be picked up from the ground and can be offered to the Gods.  

Parijaat has many names, one of which is Haar Shringar.  In Marathi it is called Prajakta, in Bengali it is Shefali and Xiwalee, in Assamese also it is known as Xiwalee, in Malayalam it is called Pavizhamalli and in Tamil it is called Pavazhamalli.


This tree has medicinal values in Ayurveda and Homeopathy.

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore wrote a beautiful song about dedicating the Shefali bloom to the Goddess during the Pujo.

Hey khoniker otithi,

Ele probhate kaare chhahiya

Jhara sephalir pato baahiya.

Kon amaraar birohinire chaahoni phire,

Kaar bishader shishironire ele naahiya.

Ogo akorun, ki maaya jaano,

Milanochhale biraho anno.

Cholechho pothik aalokojaane  aandharo-paane

Monbhulano mahanotaane  gaan gaahiya.


Translation in English

O' visitor of a few moments

You came at dawn asking for whom

Treading on the path of fallen bloom of Shefali

The forlorn lover of an unknown heaven you looked not back

In whose dew-moist sorrow did you come bathed?

O merciless, what charm do you know

That you bring separation in the ruse of union 

Traveler on the chariot of light towards darkness 

Singing an enchanting beautiful tune.

And Gurudev describing the beauty of the heavenly beauty of this tree and the flower,  Ephimeral nature of the Shefali bloom.

Olo shephali, olo shephali

Aamar sobuj chhaayar prodoshe tui jwaalis dipali.

Taarar baani aakash theke tomar rup dilo enke

Shyamol paataay thare thare aakhor rupali.

Tomar buker khasa gandho-aanchol roilo paata se

Aamar gopan kaanon bithir bibosho baatashe.

Saaratadin baate baate naana kaaje dibas kaate

Aamar snaajhe baaje tomar koruno bhupali.


And again a song by Gurudev 


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