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Fig:  (a) Chitpavan temple priest playing a statistical game of chance at the Parshuram Temple while devotees wait at Pengini in southern Goa near Karwar at the Karnataka-Goa border in December 2003. (b) Close up of the specially superficially grooved wooden pillar in the hall showing tiny "flags" of Tumbi flowers - each representing a question waiting for an answer from "God." (c) close up of a Tumbi flower - notice single eccentric petal and a short but firm and straight glistening stem. (d) Weed like non-toxic plant of Tumbi growing all around the temples. 
 

"Kaul lavane" Asking God for divine interception and answers for worldly affairs is a very common belief in Maharashtra. Chitpavans are no exception. Forget head or tail, ask for Tumbi. Typically a devotee or believer asks about a nagging question to God through a priest. The priest sticks a Tumbi flower in specially grooved pillar of wood in the hall and through a elaborate skim of rules and charts (slightly changing odds from 50-50 to may be) interprets the results of the direction of the fall of the flower or "The mind of God."  Selection of this Tumbi flower for this trick is quite ingenious. This simple "pure" divine white looking flower compared to the other flowers of its size shows a tubular hollow stem to be quite firm, short, straight, fibrous and not limp so you can stick it in some hole or a track scratched on a wooden pillar without difficulty. The mucinous fluid and water around the stem allows it to stick to the wood but not for too long. The flower has only one petal so it is unbalanced and most likely will fall shortly so usually you don't have to wait for days to get God's reply. The depth and angle of the insertion of the stem in the pillar, drying out process of sticky fluid around the base of the flower, and surrounding air drift will determine how long the flower will stay on the pillar. The flower will most likely fall in the direction of the tilt and direction of the lopsided eccentric single petal. The plant is actually a non-toxic weed growing all around the temples and produces year round flowers so there is reasonablly assured supply of flowers for the whole year for the temple-casino for the Parshuram devotees!

One would think that fruits such as Sitaphal (A. squamosa), Ramphal (A. reticulata), Hanumanphal or Lakshmanphal (A. Cherimola) must have been with us forever in India just like an apple pie or the hot dog dear to his or her heart for every American. Alas! However, this is not the case. The Ramayan neither makes mention of these fruits nor does any other old Sanskrit literature. First mention of these fruits appears in Materia Medica of India published in 1877. All these fruits belonging to "Annona" family clearly originated from Peru or Ecuador region. When Portuguese arrived in 1498, however, these plants were already in India. How is this possible? Similar is the case with primitive maze and pineapple. These produce originated from Mexico and Brazil respectively, although not in the remote past, but they were present in India prior to 1498. There must be some prior communication between these countries well before the discovery of the New world by Columbus in 1492. Although the Romans mention about "corn" in ancient times in Italy, we know that this is not true. The Romans had very limited vocabulary and they used the same term "corn" as a generic substitute for all different kinds of grain. However, "Jungali" maze is found in Sikkim region. Motifs similar to maze or pineapple are found in Indian carvings in Ajanta and few other temples in southern India. The fruit guava originated in Peru in South America. The origin of the Marathi name of this fruit same as the name of the country itself as "Peru" is unknown. In some northern Indian languages pineapple is also known as "Ata." In Manila in Philippines the word "Ata" or "Ate" and in Mexico word "Ata" or "Athate" signifies a pineapple. These produce may have come to India in the past from the east. Perhaps there was a communication from the Mayans to Incas to Polynesians to Maoris to people in India in the remote past. Although the Harappan hieroglyphics remains undeciphered, it has shown some resemblance to the script of the Easter Island which is west of Chile.
 

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Fig (a) The temples in Belur and Halebid built during Hoysalas dynasty between 11th to 13th century in Karanataka clearly show several female figures holding offerings of "corn on the cob" in the left hand several centuries prior to the claims of arrival of the corn brought by the Portuguese to India in 1500s. (b) Carvings of the designs of the custard apple or the "Sitaphal" (two black arrows) on either side of mid line of the pillars at the world's largest monolith or the famous "Kailas Temple" at Ellora carved out of the whole mountain around 760 A.D. during Chalukya and Rashtrakuta dynasty several centuries prior to the claim of arrival of this fruit with the Europeans to India are shown here. Originally all the stone carvings were plastered and then painted on two previous occasions (part of the plaster and paint is seen at places). On the Sitaphal on your left side, part of the old typical aquamarine green color of the "Sitaphal" is still seen near mid line. Even today Sitaphal trees grow wild around the hills of Ellora in this region. (c)  Peru: Where did the name of this fruit in Marathi originate? Spanish and Portuguese claim to have brought this fruit "guava" to India, but how did the Marathi word "Peru" for this fruit as the name of the origin of the country of this fruit "Peru" from South America originate? This name for this fruit "Peru"does not match with similar name for this fruit from any other country in the world. Some wild form of "Kothrud" "Dharwar" "Nasik" or "Nagpur seedless" varieties of Psidium guajava L. may have been in India for a long time before the arrival of the Spaniards (A seedless Poona variety is a triploid with 33 chromosomes in place of the usual 22). 

(a) Traditional wooden pats are replaced by light weight, durable, soft, and easy for cleaning "Plastic mats" or new "Plastic Pats." (b) Dried thick non-useful areca leaves are molded into eco-friendly disposable light weight "plates" in the cottage industry by today's Chitpavan farmers (c) Due to diclining use of betel nuts several farmers have switched to new cash crops such as Vanilla beans.

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