As a foreigner I am not supposed to get access to the inside of the big and famous Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar. Thus a smaller temple nearby is being explored.
I have to rush from one shady spot to another as my bare feet hurt when touching the hot floor outside the temple. Half naked priests guide to the inner of the temple. The structure is pretty old. A lot of the carvings are wiped out and washed away by time. Noon heat blues. Men either sleep on the floor or rest in shady places.
Immediately I am attracted by an old tree in the temples yard. Only some branches are still vivid. Some attached assessories show that this tree is being worshipped a lot. Small plastic rings, "bangles", are attached to the twigs and branches. The bottom part of the trunk is wrapped in a golden piece of tissue. It reminds me of the tradition to decorate a christmas tree.
"What sort of tree is that, and why do you worship it?" - these are my first logic questions to the priests. One of them knows that it is a tree from the Terminalia genus. And all the worshipping because it is considered as holy (that was easy).
Later my colleague tells me, that the shape of the seed of this kind of tree can be found in temples architecture. The circular finishing stone at the top of the temples from this area, picture exactly this trees seed. Considering the porn that is usually displayed at an indian temple I was pretty confident that this rippled rings on top of the erected temple domes were nothing else but cockrings. One cannot always guess the correct thing.
The logical last step of research is to look up the tree and its capacities on Wikipedia. And voilá: The seed of this plant is an ingredient for brewing great beers of a famous ayurvedic medicine called "Triphala". It is said that its positive effects for the purpose of curing cancer are scientifically proven.
Architectural decorative elements to pass the great effects of healing plants from generation to generation over centuries: I like.
Photo above: 'Lingaraj Temple' in Bhubaneswar at night.
Photo below: Tree from the genus 'Terminalia' in the backyard of 'Ananta Basudev Mandir' in Bhubaneswar.