Āmra
Āmra, “the mango tree”
Grammar: masculine noun, the mango tree; neuter, its fruit. The Agni Purāṇa also calls it cūta.
Meaning: the mango tree, whose young sprouts (pallavas), leaves, fruit, juice and bark are used in pūjā, in the art of fragrance and in Āyurveda.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa names the mango in pūjā, around the house, in medicine and in homa.
In pūjā. At the toraṇas (gateways) of the yajña-maṇḍapa, auspicious kalaśas holding mango shoots, sprouted barley and other sprouts are set at the base of the pillars (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 56), and mango leaves are tied on the toraṇas (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 95). The east kalaśa for the bath of the mūrti holds the sprouts of twelve trees, the last of them cūta, the mango (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 57); and the śānti water is sprinkled with mango sprouts on the head of the mūrti (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 60). Among the waters for the deva’s bath are five decoctions of the bark of the nyagrodha, udumbara, aśvattha, mango and jambū (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 95), and at the pratishṭhā of the temple the kalaśa is covered with the sprouts of the five trees beginning with the mango (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 101). In the art of fragrance, a substance washed with water purified by the pallavas of kapittha, bilva, jambū, mango and karavīra becomes pure; this is śaucana. If these pallavas are lacking, water mixed with musk purifies (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 224).
Around the house. In the Āyurveda of trees which Dhanvantari teaches, a plaksha to the north of the house, a vaṭa to the east, a mango to the south and an aśvattha to the west are auspicious (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 282).
In medicine. Pills made of about eighteen fragrant substances, one ṭaṅka of each, with a quarter part of scented khadira-sāra and mango juice, held in the mouth, remove all diseases of the mouth (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 224). The bark of śallakī, badarī, jambū, priyāla, mango and arjuna, with honey and taken with milk, destroys bloody atisāra (dysentery); and a powder of bilva, mango, dhātakī, pāṭhā, dry ginger and mocarasa in equal parts, taken with buttermilk and jaggery, conquers the hard-to-conquer atisāra (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 285).
In homa. In the pūjā of the Devī Tvaritā, each substance offered in the homa gives its own fruit, and mango fruits give long life (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 309). In another rite the homa is done with tila, barley, parched rice, rice grain, wheat, mango fruits and bilva fruits mixed and with ghee poured on them (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 311).
At Gayā. At the tīrtha of Gayā, beside the yūpa set up by Brahmā, a muni holding a water-pot and the tip of a kuśa blade used to pour water on the mango trees; by that one act the mango trees were watered and the pitṛs were satisfied (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 115).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa. The Madhyama Parva says that planting āmra gives desired wishes, that one who plants it without vidhi gets no fruit, only a downward course, and that sprinkling with coconut water and honey-water makes it grow (Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 1, Chapters 10–11). A garden of a hundred hastas with fruit trees such as āmra needs a vāstu-maṇḍala and pūjā of Vāstu at its pratishṭhā (Bhāga 3, Chapters 9–11), and āmra leaves and flowers are named in a pūjā with tulasī, śamī, kamala and karavīra (Bhāga 3, Chapters 18–19). In the Uttara Parva it is among the twelve fruits eaten month by month in a rite (Chapter 42), one of the sixteen fruits made in gold in the Sarvaphalatyāga vrata (Chapter 98), and of the trees whose planter never sees naraka: one pippala, one nimba, one vaṭa, ten tintiḍī, one each of kapittha, bilva and āmalaka, and five mango trees (Chapters 127–129).
Related terms: Cūta · Pallava · Pañca-pallava · Jambū · Bilva · Aśvattha
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 56–57, 60, 95, 101, 115, 224, 282, 285, 309, 311
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 1, Chapters 10–11; Bhāga 3, Chapters 9–11, 18–19; Uttara Parva, Chapters 42, 98, 127–129