Anyone heard of a flower called "aniccam?"

[venetia ansell]

Mimosa pudica is certainly very common in Karnataka - it's called chhui mui
in Hindi, mutthidaremuni in Kannada I think, and lajjaa (as in bashfulness)
in Sanskrit.

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 10:07 AM, Dipak Bhattacharya <
dbhattacharya2004 at yahoo.co.in> wrote:

> Mimosa pudica is Thottalvadi in Tamil not aniccam.
> Best
> DB
>
> --- On Mon, 22/3/10, Dominic Goodall <dominic.goodall at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>
> From: Dominic Goodall <dominic.goodall at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Anyone heard of a flower called "aniccam?"
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Date: Monday, 22 March, 2010, 9:01 AM
>
>
> This reminds me that in the hills in the South today one finds plenty of
> Mimosa pudica, whose leaves temporarily fold up the second that you touch
> them, or indeed blow on them.
>
> But I am not sure how long these plants have been growing there, for the
> Pandanus website (http://iu.ff.cuni.cz/pandanus/database/),
> quoting Dymock, Warden, Hooper: Pharmacographia Indica, vol. I, pp.
> 538-539, calls Mimosa pudica a "native of Brazil long naturalized in India".
>
> Dominic Goodall
>
> On 21 Mar 2010, at 21:39, Michael Witzel wrote:
>
> > The whole discussion (here and in Tamil) reminded me of the little
> yellow  flower,  called 'noli me tangere' "don't touch me!" in Latin.
> >
> > For some details see: <http://www.aboutflowers.org/giantbalsamim_xal.htm>
> (also in N. India)
> >
> > (Leaves of certain trees also do that: they fold on touch).
> >
> > Cheers,
> > MW
> >
> >
> > On Mar 21, 2010, at 11:54 AM, rajam wrote:
> >
> >> Dear Whitney,
> >>
> >> The poems don't indicate that the flower perishes, though. The emphasis
> is on its delicateness, softness, and gentleness. So I wonder whether the
> flower's "reflex" action ("to wilt" when someone smells it) fascinated the
> poet. Maybe one could find a similar flower somewhere -- I hope!
> >>
> >> Thanks and regards,
> >> VSR
> >>
> >> On Mar 21, 2010, at 1:18 AM, Whitney Cox wrote:
> >>
> >>> Dear Rajam,
> >>>
> >>> In line with your observation that the flower is supposedly "super
> >>> sensitive", it seems possible to me that the derivation of the name
> >>> might be from a-nitya ("impermanent," "perishable"), rather than
> >>> an+icchā (I see that the MTL, p. 191 thinks the same thing).  However,
> >>> I don't know of any flower called anitya in Sanskrit.
> >>>
> >>> Best regards,
> >>>
> >>> Whitney
> >>>
> >>> On 21 March 2010 06:00, rajam <rajam at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >>>> Has anyone on this list come across a plant/flower type named
> "aniccha" in
> >>>> any non-Tamil literature?
> >>>> Has anyone seen it (in person or in a picture)?
> >>>>
> >>>> "Aniccam" is listed just as a flower in early Tamil poetry. Later on,
> the
> >>>> focus is on the flower's super sensitivity--about how it would wilt at
> the
> >>>> contact of human breath, how it would harm a woman [with a slender
> waist] if
> >>>> she wears the flower without removing its stem, ... and so on.
> >>>>
> >>>> There is a thought that the term "anicca" is derived thus: a + iccha
> (a +
> >>>> icchaa - Without Desire/Wish).
> >>>>
> >>>> What is your thought? Are there similar flowers extolled in non-Tamil
> poetry
> >>>> for such super sensitivity?
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks and regards,
> >>>> V.S. Rajam
> >>>> < (www.letsgrammar.org)>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>> Dr. Whitney Cox
> >>> Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia,
> >>> School of Oriental and African Studies
> >>> Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
> >>> London WC1H 0XG
> >
> > ============
> > Michael Witzel
> > witzel at fas.harvard.edu
> > <www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm>
> >
> > Dept. of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
> > 1 Bow Street,
> > Cambridge MA 02138, USA
> >
> > phone: 1- 617 - 495 3295, 496 8570, fax 617 - 496 8571;
> > my direct line:  617- 496 2990
>
>
>
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