I Won't Let You Go (45 page)

Dehra Dun:
an important hill town in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In the
British
days Dehra Dun enjoyed a great reputation as a hill resort and had a large resident population of retired people, both British and Indian (Murray’s
Handbook
for Travellers in India, Burma and Ceylon,
cited above, p. 422).

deodar:
literally, ‘the timber of the gods’, a tall long-lived native of the
western
Himalayan region, the
Cedrus deodara,
(Roxb.) Loud., Pinaceae, not to be confused with the
Polyalthia longifolia,
Benth. & Hook. f., Anonaceae, which is a native of Ceylon and Tanjore, which has been given the name ‘deodar’, and which is often planted as an ornamental tree in avenues. There are
deodars
of this latter variety in the Santiniketan campus, but in poem no. 36 of
Balaka
Tagore is referring to the Himalayan deodar of Kashmir.

dolonchampa:
the
Hedychium coronarium,
Koen., Zingiberaceae, a plant
growing
from ginger-like rhizomes; the stalks bear crowns of flowers with an
exquisite
fragrance, usually white with a yellowish tinge at the centre, though other colours are also known. This is the flower currently called the
dolonchampa
in Santiniketan; it is, however, possible that Tagore was thinking of a different flower, perhaps a variety of the champa/champak.

Durvasa:
a sage famous in legend for his bad temper and readiness to
pronounce
curses. He curses Shakuntala, the heroine of Kalidasa’s celebrated play
Abhijnanashakuntala
.

ektara:
a one-stringed instrument used by Bauls and other folk musicians.

fan palm:
the tall palmyra or
Borassus flabellifer,
L., Arecaceae (Palmae),
valued
for its fruit, leaves, timber, and sap. The large fan-shaped leaves have many uses, including in the manufacture of hand-fans, sun-hats etc. This is the tree (Beng.
tal
) from the name of which the word
toddy
is ultimately
derived
, it being one of the trees the fermented sap of which is turned into an intoxicating drink (
tadi
).

frangipani:
Bengali
golokchampa
, the
Plumeria acutifolia,
Poir., Apocynaceae, a deciduous tree with thick branches full of milk, bearing fragrant
funnel-shaped
flowers, white with yellow centres, in compound cymes. There is also a variety bearing pure white flowers,
Plumeria tuberculata,
and a variety bearing red flowers,
Plumeria rubra,
in the same family. These trees came to India from the New World.

Gandharva:
an order of demi-gods who are the celestial musicians of Indra’s heaven. For the reference in ‘Tamarind Flower’, see the entry on Chitrarath above.

Ganga:
the Indian name for the Ganges. (
Ganges
is the Greek version of the name.)

ghat:
steps which give access to a river or water-tank, where people congregate for washing or fetching water, or where boats can be moored.

guava:
the tasty fruits of the
Psidium guajava,
L., Myrtaceae, Bengali
peyara
, are still very rare on supermarket shelves in Britain, but guava jelly can
sometimes
be seen. The tree was introduced to India from tropical America.

heloncho:
a variety of edible bitter greens that grow near water,
Enhydra
fluctuans
,
Lour., Asteraceae, used as a vegetable. The family name may be
subsumed
in the larger order Compositae.

henna:
Bengali
hena
or
mehedi
, the
Lawsonia inermis
, L., Lythraceae, the same as
Lawsonia alba
, Lam., Lythraceae, a pretty shrub with fragrant greenish white
flowers, often used for hedges. Its shoots and leaves have long been used in oriental cosmetic preparations to dye the skin and hair. Nowadays one can see the name of this plant on labels of shampoo bottles in the West as well. Both Eng.
henna
and Beng.
hena
are ultimately derived from Arabic.

hibiscus:
the red-flowering variety of the Bengali
joba, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis,
L., Malvaceae, is the commonest, the white-flowering variety being rarer. Many varieties and hybrids are cultivated. I have read a description of the white
hibiscus
of Hawaii, a slightly different species, but I do not know if it is cultivated in India and doubt if Tagore was referring to its flower in ‘Camellia’. A
reference
to a white variety of the
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis,
very common in India, is much more likely.

Howrah Station:
the railway station at Howrah, a town facing Calcutta on the west bank of the Hooghly, used for westward journeys from Calcutta, including to Bombay, Delhi, and Madras.

Indra:
the mythological king of the gods.

jaam:
a large evergreen tree with a dense crown and shiny leaves, yielding juicy fruits which are dark purple, nearly black in colour. The fruits look like black grapes or olives, have stones in the centre as olives do, and have a strong, sweet-astringent taste. Its current botanical name, I am told, is
Syzygium cumini,
(L.) Skeels, Myrtaceae; in most old authors it is called
Eugenia jambolana,
Lamk., Myrtaceae.

jack:
the
Artocarpus heterophyllus,
Lamk., Moraceae, the same as
Artocarpus integrifolia,
L., Urticaceae, a large evergreen tree bearing huge edible fruits which have a potent smell when ripe and which are also cooked as vegetables when green. The jack fruit is described thus in Basu & Dutta, p. 49: ‘a globose or cylindrical aggregate formed by a large number of flowers growing together, mostly sterile but many with seeds; 12-30 by 6-12 in. hanging on short stalks from the trunk and larger branches, the rind with conical protuberances, each representing a single flower’. It is apparently the largest known fruit in the world: specimens weighing 90 pounds have been recorded (Everett, p. 133). When a large fruit is opened, several people can make a meal of it. The
timber
is used for furniture. The word
jack
is ultimately from Sanskrit, via
Malayalam
and Portuguese. The Bengali word commonly used is
kantal
or
kanthal
, also of Sanskrit origin.

Jamuna:
or Yamuna, or the Jumna of the old maps, one of the important rivers of northern India, which rises from the Himalayas, flows past Delhi and Agra, and meets the Ganga at Allahabad, an important place of pilgrimage. The Jamuna also flows past Vrindavan and Mathura, two places strongly associated with Krishna.

jarul:
the
Lagerstroemia speciosa,
(L.) Pers., Lythraceae, identical with
Lagerstroemia
flos-reginae,
Retz., Lythraceae, a deciduous tree with ‘Large handsome mauve flowers in terminal erect panicles’ (Basu & Dutta, p. 28). The timber is highly prized.

jasmine:
I have always translated the Bengali
juthi
or
jui
, the
Jasminum
auriculatum
,
Vahl., Oleaceae, as the jasmine, as it comes closest to the jasmine of English gardens. To avoid confusion, other members of the jasmine family
retain
their Bengali names in the texts.

jujube:
Bengali
kul
, the spiny tree
Zizyphus mauritiana,
Lam., Rhamnaceae,
in older sources called
Zizyphus jujuba,
Lam., Rhamnaceae, bearing tasty drupes which are eaten raw when ripe and also made into pickles and chutneys. The taste of the ripe fruit resembles that of ripe gooseberries.

jungle crow:
larger than the common house crow, uniformly glossy jet-black in colour, with a heavier bill and a deeper, hoarser cawing. It normally lives in the countryside, avoiding urban areas, but sometimes hangs around the
outskirts
of human habitations in search of food.

Jyaishtha:
the second month of the Bengali calendar and the second summer month, mid-May to mid-June.

kadamba:
a tree bearing strongly scented yellow-orange ball-shaped flowers which are really composed of numerous small florets ‘united by their confluent calyx tubes’ (Basu & Dutta, p. 30). The tree flowers in the rainy season. The fruit is edible. Its current botanical name was given to me as
Anthocephalus chinensis,
(Lamk.) A. Rich. ex Walp., Rubiaceae, but the curious are likely to encounter it under a variety of other names, such as
Anthocephalus indicus,
A. Rich., Rubiaceae,
Anthocephalus cadamba,
Miq., Rubiaceae (as in Basu & Dutta, from where I have just quoted), or even
Nauclea cadamba
(Monier-Williams).

Kailas:
a mountain to the north of the Himalayan range, in Tibet, to the north of Lake Manas. It is the dwelling-place of the god Kubera and also one of the favourite residences of the great god Shiva.

kajari chants:
a genre of folk songs associated with the rainy season.

kanchon:
the
Bauhinia purpurea,
L., Caesalpiniaceae, an almost evergreen tree with large fragrant purple flowers, or the
Bauhinia variegata,
L., of the same family, which is deciduous, bearing white, red, or purple flowers. I was also given the name
Bauhinia acuminata,
L., of the same family.

kantalichampa:
a small scandent shrub with dark green leaves and very
fragrant
flowers of a pale yellow or pale green colour. Its current Latin name was given to me as
Artabotrys hexapetalus,
(L.f.) Bhandari, Anonaceae. In earlier sources it is called
Artabotrys odoratissimus.

kantha:
a hand-sewn wrap made from old clothes. Re-cycling old cotton pieces by layering them and sewing them into wraps used to be one of the traditional domestic crafts of Bengal, and much ingenuity of women’s needlework was lavished on them. The kantha is humble but can be pretty. It is not necessarily an image of poverty. In ‘The Old House’ it is its patched state that indicates the wearer’s indigence.

Kartik:
the seventh month of the Bengali calendar and the first autumn month, mid-October to mid-November.

ketaki:
a shrub belonging to the screwpine family, with very spiny long leaves and strongly scented flowers of elongated shape (like heads of sweetcorn) that blossom in the rainy season. In legend it appears to have been a flower that was cursed by Shiva (S. Bhattacharya,
Chiranjib Banowshadhi
(Ananda
Publishers
, Calcutta), vol. 5). Its powerful aroma is known to have a drugging effect on snakes, which like coiling round it, and its essential oil is used in Indian perfumery and confectionery. In most old sources its botanical name is given as
Pandanus odoratissimus
, but I was told that it could be identified with
Pandanus
foetidus,
Roxb., Pandanaceae. To the sensitive noses of botanical
taxonomists
odoratissimus
may verge on
foetidus
, but on behalf of a flower celebrated for its fragrance in Indian poetry, and on behalf of those who, like myself, are
named after it, I would like to register my protest against this new name!
Bhattacharya
, whom I have just cited, gives its new name as
Pandanus tectorius,
which does not sound so bad!

Khoka:
meaning ‘little boy’, is also a common pet name for a boy. In ‘
Hide-and
-
Seek
’ it is clearly a name in the first stanza, but in the second and third stanzas it could be translated either way, especially as there is no capitalisation in the Bengali alphabet to stamp a word indisputably as a proper name.

kochu greens:
Colocasia esculenta,
(L.) Schott., Araceae, probably the same as
Alocasia indica
, Schott., Araceae, delicious as a vegetable. Although it is called ‘greens’ in an honorific sense, it is really the esculent stems, not the large leaves, that are cooked and eaten, just as one does with rhubarb.

koel:
Bengali
kokil, koyel,
belongs to the cuckoo family and is one of the most indefatigable singers of the Indian spring. Its high-pitched, insistent song,
increasing
in intensity as it goes on, is very different from that of the cuckoo which comes to Britain in the spring.

kolmi:
a variety of edible greens that grow near water,
Ipomoea aquatica,
Forsk., Convolvulaceae, the same as
Ipomoea reptans,
Poir., of the same family, delicious when cooked as a vegetable.

Kopai:
the name of a small river of Birbhum district, West Bengal, which flows near Santiniketan.

koromcha:
the
Carissa carandas,
L., Apocynaceae, bearing fruit which look somewhat like cherries and are pleasantly tartish in taste.

kunda:
a scandent shrub of the jasmine family, with white fragrant flowers in dense cymes,
Jasminum multiflorum,
(Burm.f.) Andr., Oleaceae, the same as
Jasminum pubescens,
Willd., Oleaceae.

kurchi:
the
Holarrhena antidysenterica,
Wall., Apocynaceae, a deciduous tree bearing creamy white flowers ‘in many-flowered corymbose cymes’ (Basu & Dutta, p. 39). Its bark has been used in the treatment of dysentery.

kurubak:
the reference in ‘Dream’ (
Kalpana
) is taken by Tagore straight from Kalidasa, but it is not so easy to establish the exact identity of this flower in Kalidasa. According to the
Sanskrit-English Dictionary
of Monier-Williams, it could be either a red amaranth or a red variety of
Barleria cristata
, L.,
Acanthaceae
.

kush-grass:
a variety of grass used in religious rituals and famous for its sharp points. The Latin name given to me is
Desmostachya bipinnata,
Stapf, Poaceae. Monier-Williams identifies it with
P
oa cynosuroides
.