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Tulsi (holy basil)
तुलसी (tulsi)
A small aromatic shrub of the mint family with purple-tinged leaves and slim spikes of tiny lilac flowers, often kept in a raised planter in a courtyard.
👀 How to recognise it
Lean close: the leaves smell sharply of clove and pepper. The plant is about knee height, with square stems, toothed leaves and thin flower spikes rising above them.
Where to see it
Mathura
Mathura's bead lanes run on tulsi: the necklaces and prayer strings sold around the Janmasthan and Vishram Ghat are cut and turned from the woody stems of old plants, and a leaf is added to the food offered in the temples. Across Braj, tulsi stands in a raised planter in the courtyard of nearly every house.
Raman Reti, Gokul · Vishram Ghat
Vrindavan
Nearly every Vrindavan courtyard and shopfront keeps a tulsi in a raised planter (the tulsi vrindavan), watered and circled in the morning. The bead necklaces sold in the bazaars are cut from the woody stems of old plants.
Nidhivan · Vrindavan Parikrama Marg · Gahvar Van (often)
Haridwar
Tulsi is treated not as a plant used in worship but as a form of the goddess herself; the plant is married to Vishnu each year at Tulsi Vivah, in Kartik.
Mayapur
In the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition centred on Mayapur, tulsi is not a plant used in worship but a form of the goddess herself. Beads for chanting are turned from tulsi wood, and leaves are placed on every food offering.
ISKCON Mayapur
Rishikesh
Tulsi is treated not as a plant used in worship but as a form of the goddess herself; the plant is married to Vishnu each year at Tulsi Vivah, in Kartik.
Ujjain
Tulsi is treated not as a plant used in worship but as a form of the goddess herself; the plant is married to Vishnu each year at Tulsi Vivah, in Kartik.
Varanasi
Tulsi is treated not as a plant used in worship but as a form of the goddess herself; the plant is married to Vishnu each year at Tulsi Vivah, in Kartik.
Vishwanath Gali