फलम् नैवेद्यम् च (phalam, naivedyam ca)

Continuing on from the previous post, I will present in this post a list of commonly offered fruits and food items. नैवेद्यम् (naivedyam) is upacArA 14. Paraphrasing the earlier reference document, this upacAra is mentioned in sutrA 41 of the bhAvanopanishat and is the following:

समस्तयातायात वर्जनम् नैवेद्यम्

samastayAtAyAta varjanam naivedyam

Overcoming the temptations of the indriyAs and offering and renouncing our worldly pleasures and desires is the significance of naivedyam.

The reference to indriyAs is because food involves all our senses: we see it, we smell it, we taste it, we touch it and also hear it during the chewing process. Any food item that gratifies all these senses naturally appeals to us. So, by offering naivedyam we symbolically renounce these pleasures and simply partake in whatever God gives us back.

Typically naivedyam consists of fruits, milk and milk products and various cooked delicacies. The assortment of these food items varies depending on the occasion and the presiding deity. I have compiled a list that includes as many of these items as I can think of. The list of fruits is the following.

Fruits

1. Grape	द्राक्षा फलम् (drAkshA phalam)
2. Mango	आम्र फलम् (Amra phalam)
3. Coconut (broken)	नारिकेल खण्डम् (nArikela khaNDam)
4. Jackfruit	पनस फलम् (panasa phalam)
5. Banana	कदली फलम् (kadalI phalam)
6. Lemon fruit	जम्बीर फलम् (jambIra phalam)
7. Wood apple (vlampazham)	कपित्थ फलम् (kapittha phalam)
8. Rose apple (panneer koyya)	जम्बु फलम् (jambu phalam)
9. Gooseberry	आमलक फलम् (Amalaka phalam)
10. Jujube	बदर फलम् (badara phalam)
11. Pomegranate	दाडिम फलम् (dADima phalam)
12. Apple	सेव फलम् (seva phalam)
13. Guava	बीजपूर फलम् (bIjapUra phalam)
14. Pineapple	अनास फलम् (anAsa phalam)
15. Sugarcane	इक्षु फलम् (ikshu phalam)
16. Orange	नारङ्ग् फलम् (nArangga phalam)
17. Custard apple (sitaa pazham)	गण्डगात्र फलम् (gaNDagAtra phalam)
18. Dates	खर्जूर फलम् (kharjUra phalam)

Dairy products and some other ingredients used either as naivedyam or to perform abshishekam (snAnam) are the following:

1. Milk	क्षीरम् (kshIram)
2. Curd	दधि (dadhi)
3. Buttermilk	तक्रम् (takram)
4. Butter	नवनीतम् (navanItam)
5. Ghee	धृतम् (dhrutam)
6. Cheese	दधिकम् (dadhikam)
7. Paanakam	पानकम् (pAnakam)
8. Oil	तैलम् (tailam)
9. Honey	मधु (madhu)
10. Turmeric	हरिद्रा (haridrA)

For the list of cooked delicacies, I have mostly included only the Tamil names on the left hand side for the sake of brevity! Performing an image search on these names in Google will surely clarify your doubts if you are not sure about any of them. The list is the following:

1. Vadai	माषापूपम् (maShApUpam)
2. Adirsam	गुडापूपम् (guDApUpam)
3. Adai	अपूपम् (apUpam)
4. Vennpongal	मुग्धान्नम् (mugdhAnnam)
5. Chakkarai pongal	गुडान्नम् (guDAnnam)
6. Paal payasam	क्षीरपायसम् (kShIrapAyasam)
7. Vella payasam	गुडपायसम् (guDapAyasam)
8. Kozhukattai	मोदकम् (modakam)
9. Idli	अपूपम्  (apUpam)
10. Cooked white rice	शाल्यन्नम् (shAlyannam)
11. Cooked colored rice	चित्रान्नम् (citrAnnam)
12. Curd rice	दध्योन्नम् (dadhyonnam)
13. Coconut rice	नारिकेलान्नम् (nArikelAnnam)
14. Rice flakes (aval)	पृथुकम् (prthukam)
14. All bakshanams	भक्ष्यविसेषम् (bakshyavisheSham)

To conclude, here is the naivedya mantram:

ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः।	Om bhurbhuvaH svaH
तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यम्	tatsaviturvareNyam
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि।	bhargo devasya dhImahi
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात्॥	dhiyo yo naH pracodayAt
देव सवितः प्रसुवा ।	deva savitaH prasuvA
सत्यम् त्वर्तेन परिशिन्चामि ।	satyam tvartena parishincAmi
अमृतोपस्तरणमसि॥	amrutopastaraNamasi
ॐ प्राणाय स्वाः ।	Om prANAya svAH
ॐ अपानाय स्वाः ।	Om apAnAya svAH
ॐ व्यानाय स्वाः ।	Om vyAnAya svAH
ॐ उदानाय स्वाः ।	Om udAnAya svAH
ॐ समानाय स्वाः ।	Om samAnAya svAH
ॐ ब्रह्मणे स्वाः ।	Om brahmaNe svAH

There is, as always, an explanation for the above mantram also. I will not get into it now, but will try to do so later when I talk about the Gayatri mantram in greater detail. Finally, after we are done offering food to god, we need to offer Him tAmbUlam as per upacArA 15. The tAmbUla mantram is the following:

पूगी फल समायुक्तम्।	pUgI phala samAyuktam
नागवल्ली दलै युर्थम्।	nAgavallii dalai yurtham
कर्पूर चूर्ण सन्युक्तम्।	karpUracUrNa sanyuktam
ताम्बूलम् प्रति गृह्यताम्॥	tAmbUlam prati grhyatAm

पुष्पम् (puShpam)...

Before I move on to more Slokas, I feel that the earlier post about the Ganesha shata nAmAvaLi is not complete without a discussion about पुष्पम् (puShpam), फलम् (phalam) and नैवेद्यम् (naivedyam). No pUja is complete without the offering of food to the deities. The Gods neither wear the flowers we offer them nor eat the fruits and other food items we present to them. Not withstanding, such offerings are an integral part of our Hindu rituals. They are meant to give us the satisfaction of having first offered to God the food that we consume. As with all Vedantic rituals, it turns out that there is a deeper philosophical meaning to these symbolic offering of flowers, fruits and food items as well. In fact, puShpam and naivedyam are just two of 16 different upacArAs or acts of hospitality towards God. In an even more expansive ritual, there are 32 upacArAs. Any pUja that includes these 16 upacArAs is called a षोडष उपचार पूजा (ShoDaSa upacAra pUja) and the entire list of these upacArAs together with their significance can be found here (I have transliterated the document to be consistent with the notation found in the posts. This is the link to the original document). A summary of the 16 upacArAs is the following. The logical flow in these upacArAs is very obvious.

1. आवाहनम् (AvAhanam)	welcoming the deity
2. आसनम् (Asanam)	offering seat
3. पाद्यम् (pAdyam)	washing feet
4. अर्घ्यम् (arghyam)	washing hands
5. आचमनम् (Acamanam)	offering water to drink/wash mouth
6. स्नानम् (snAnam)	bathing
7. वस्त्रम् (vastram)	offering clothes
8. यज्ञोपवीतम् (yagyopavItam)	offering sacred thread
9. आभरणम् (Abharanam)	offering jewels
10. गन्धम् (gandham)	offering sandalwood paste
11. पुष्पम् (puShpam)	offering flowers during pUja
12. धूपम् (dhUpam)	offering incense
13. दीपम् (dIpam)	offering lighted lamp
14. नैवेद्यम् (naivedyam)	offering food (fruits and/or cooked items)
15. ताम्बूलम् (tAmbUlam)	offering Betel leaves with Caustic and Betel nut
16. प्रदक्षिण नमस्कारम् (pradakshiNa namaskAram)	circumambulation + salutation

In this post and the next, I will focus only on upacArAs 11, 14 and 15 that are related to offering flowers, fruits, Betel leaves and other food items.

पुष्पम् (puShpam) is the 11th upacArA among the 16 upacArAs and refers to the offering of flowers to God. To paraphrase the above mentioned document, this upacArA  is mentioned in सूत्रा (sutrA) 38 of the भावनोपनिशत् (bhAvanopanishat) as follows:

अहिंसा प्रथम पुष्पम्, पुष्पमिन्द्रियाणिग्रह दयक्षमज्ञानपुष्पम्, पंचपुष्पम् ततःपर​

ahimsA prathama puShpam, puShpamindriyaNigraha dayakshamagyAnapuShpam, pancapuShpam tatahpara

ahimsA or non violence, indriyaNigraha or control over the senses, dayA or kindness, kshamA or forgiveness and gyAna or knowledge are called the panca puShpAs or five flowers with which we can control our ahamkAra or ego and surrender to God. Hence worshipping the Deity with flowers is symbolic of controlling these and surrendering to God.

I will now present Sanskrit names for some of the commonly used flowers in this post, followed by fruits and naivedyam food items in the next post. Since my childhood days, I have been observing my dad perform pUja - the ones he performs every day of the week as well as the special ones he performs on festive days like Ganesha caturthi etc. My mom and grandma would diligently prepare naivedyam for every one of these pUjas. No matter what items were placed before him, my dad would very easily come up with Sanskrit names for all the fruits and cooked delicacies to complete the naivedyam procedure. He would similarly name all the flowers that he used during the arcanA also. So, to make things easy for myself, I requested my dad to compile a list for my blog. The list is the following (I have included some Tamil names in italics to make identification easy):

Flowers:

Lotus	कमलम् (kamalam)
Jasmine	मल्लिका (mallikA)
Blue Lotus	राजीव पुष्पम् (rAjIva puShpam)
Coral Jasmine (pavazha malli)	पारिजातम् (pArijAtam)
Sunflower	सूर्यकमलम् (sUryakamalam)
Rose	जवा (javA)
Water Lily	कुमुदम् (kumudam)
Calatropis (erukkam poo)	अर्क पुष्पम् (arka puShpam)
Sevanthi poo	सेवन्तीका (sevantIkA)
Screwpine flower (thaazham poo)	केतकी पुष्पम् (ketakI puShpam)
Oleander (arali poo)	करवीर पुष्पम् (karavIra puShpam)
Thumba poo	द्रोण पुष्पम् (droNa puShpam)
Mandaara poo	मन्दार पुष्पम् (mandAra puShpam)
Michelia champak (shenbagha poo)	चम्पक पुष्पम् (campaka puShpam)
Trumpet flower	पाटली पुष्पम् (pATalI puShpam)
mullai poo (a kind of Jasmine)	जाती पुष्पम् (jAtI puShpam)
Marigold	स्थूल पुष्पम् (sthUla puShpam)
Oomatham poo	दुर्धूर पुष्पम् (durdhUra puShpam)
Pomegranate flower	दाडिमी पुष्पम् (dADimI puShpam)
Marikozhundu	मरुवक पुष्पम् (maruvakapuShpam)

Many times, along with the offering of flowers, the leaves of these plants are also included as part of the arcanA procedure. For most plants, the corresponding leaf name can be obtained by simply replacing the word पुष्पम्  (puShpam) with पत्रम् (patram). However, with certain plants, only the leaves are used during arcanA while the flowers are not. Some of them I can think of are the following.

Leaves

Bel leaf (vilva ilai)	बिल्व पत्रम् (bilva patram)
Mango leaf (maavilai)	चूत पत्रम्  (cUta patram)
Indian Gooseberry (nellikkai)	आमलकी पत्रम् (AmalakI patram)
Vishnukranthi ilai	विष्णुक्रान्त पत्रम् (viShNukrAnta patram)
Berry (ilanthai ilai)	बदरी पत्रम् (badarI patram)
Bermuda grass (arugampul)	दूर्व पत्रम् (dUrva patram)

I will keep adding to the list if I can think of any names I have left out. I will complete this discussion with a list of neivedyam names in the next post.