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Sacred lotus
कमल (kamal)
Not a water lily: the lotus holds its round leaves and its flower clear above the water on stiff stalks, and water beads off the leaf surface without wetting it.
👀 How to recognise it
Leaves standing above the surface, pale pink or white flowers, and a flat-topped seed head like a shower rose. Water lilies, by contrast, float flat on the water.
Where to see it
Bengaluru
The state flower of Karnataka and the national flower of India. On city lakes the lotus mats matter practically as well: they are where pheasant-tailed jacanas, moorhens and bronze-winged jacanas nest.
Kaikondrahalli Lake (in season) · Lalbagh Botanical Garden (in season) · Sankey Tank (in season)
Hampi
Pampa Sarovar is named in the Ramayana as the tank where Shabari waited for Rama, and the lotus is the flower of that whole story, as well as the state flower of Karnataka.
Pampa Sarovar (in season) · Tungabhadra Dam & Gardens (in season)
Kolkata
Each Durga Puja needs 108 lotuses for the Sandhi Puja, at the junction of the festival's eighth and ninth days, and on that day West Bengal's demand reaches about ten million flowers; in most years at least 30 per cent come from other states.
Rabindra Sarobar (in season) · Eco Park (Prakriti Tirtha) (in season) · AJC Bose Indian Botanic Garden & the Great Banyan (in season)
Mayapur
In the Navadvipa-dhama-mahatmya the nine islands of Navadvipa form an eight-petalled lotus, and Antardvipa, where Mayapur lies, is its central whorl.
Chupi Char, Purbasthali (in season)
Ujjain
Beyond the Nandi Dwar of Mahakal Lok, the temple corridor opened in 2022 along the banks of Rudra Sagar, lies a lotus pond with a towering statue of a meditating Shiva among fountains.
Rudra Sagar Lake (in season) · Vishnu Sagar Lake (in season) · Undasa Lake (in season)