Saptaparṇa
Saptaparṇa · sapta-parṇa, “the seven-leaved tree”
Grammar: masculine noun; sapta (seven) with parṇa (leaf): “the seven-leaved”, the name of a tree.
Meaning: a tree of the forests, named among the great trees of the holy lands and of the Himālaya.
In the scriptures: the Brahma Purāṇa opens with Naimishāraṇya, most puṇya and supremely beautiful, crowded with munis and shining with flowers of many kinds. Among its great trees it names the sarala, panasa, mango, devadāru, pārijāta, candana, agaru, pāṭala, vakula, saptaparṇa, punnāga, nāgakesara, śāla, tāla, tamāla, nārikela and arjuna. There the munis had begun a twelve-year satra when the Sūta Lomaharshaṇa came to them (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 1).
Brahmā, telling the munis of the wedding of Devī Pārvatī and Bhagavān Śiva on the Himavat, describes how the six ṛtus came to adorn it. When Vasanta, the spring, came, the trees stood all in flower and fruit: the kadamba, nīpa, tāla, tamāla, sarala, kapittha, aśoka, sarja, arjuna, kovidāra, punnāga, nāgeśvara, karṇikāra, lavaṅga, kālāguru, saptaparṇa, nyagrodha, śobhāñjana, nārikela and every other kind of tree (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 36).
Related terms: Vṛksha · Naimishāraṇya · Vasanta · Ṛtu
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 1, 36