Kusha grass or Darbhe
Did you know that Kusha grass, popularly used as Darbhe in Hindu religion as it is considered a personification of Lord Vishnu and its use in all religious ceremonies is thus mandatory?
Did you know that Kusha grass or Darbhe used for religious purposes, is not cut or plucked on everyday, but only on Shravana Amavaysa (New Moon Day of .July-August)?
The Kusha grass or Darbhe with scientific name Desmostachya bipinnata, and botanical name Imperata cylidrica (L), is commonly known in religious parlance as Darbe or Darbha with religious connotation to use it as a purifying object. Its English names are: halfa grass, big cordgrass, and salt reed-grass. It is an Old World perennial grass, long known and used in human history. Kusha is a Sanskrit word which means "sacred". Both Kusha and Darba are mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads. In the Rigveda, it is called darba. The Atharva Veda also mentions this grass. It is used for calming anger. It is also said to be rich in roots; to possess 1000 leaves (sahasra-prana) and 100 stalks (shata-kanda). Vaishnavites, a Hindu religious order, consider it as a personification of Vishnu and its use in all religious ceremonies is thus mandatory, for, it has the inherent virtue of purifying everything. Darbha or Kusha grass is specifically recommended by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as part of the ideal seat for meditation. It is believed to block energy generated during meditation from being discharged through our body (mostly through legs and toes) into ground. Hindus thus use it as as mat, as a ring on right hand ring finger while chanting vedic mantra "Om phut swahu", performing homam and in all religious rituals.
Specifically, in Hindu religiuos practice, for ceremonies related to death only single leafed Darbha is used; for auspicious and daily routine a ring made of two leaves is used; for inauspicious but not death related functions, (like Amavasya Tharpana, Pithru Pooja etc) a three leaf Dharbha ring (Pavitra) is used and for the prayers in a temple, a four-leaf Darbha ring is used.Darbha has the highest value in conducting the phonetic vibrations through its tip.
Priests in India dip this tip in water and sprinkle all over the house or temple to purify the place. During Fire-ritual (Homa), darbha is placed on all four sides of fire to help block all negative radiations.
During eclipses, darbha are placed on vessels containing water and food, so that negative effect of rays from eclipse does not spoil them.
According to the story narrated in the Hindu scripture, Bhagavata Purana, Sita, wife of Rama of Ayodhya of the epic Ramayana, who was deserted by her husband Rama, and was living in an ashrama of Valmiki Rishi, had Lava as her first born son. She would normally leave the baby in the ashrama, But on a particular day, she had carried him along to the forest to collect fruits and firewood. Valmiki rishi who then returned to his ashrama did not find Lava in the hermitage and was scared and thought that some wild animal had carried away Lava. Deeply concerned, thinking that Sita would not survive the grief of losing her son, Valmiki created a baby resembling Lava out of Kusha grass and placed him in Lava's cot. When Sita returned, to her amzement, she found another boy, identical to her son Lava in the cot. Perplexed she asked Valmiki the reason for this strange happening. Valmiki explained the phenomenon and asked Sita to take the baby as her second son, in the name of Kusha as he had created the boy from the Kusha grass and imbibed it with life. Sita accepted this and thus Lava and Kusha became twin brothers. Later in Life, Kusha became the ruler of Kasur (Kusha-ur), now in Pakistan.
In another story in the epic Ramayana it says when Lord Rama sent Sita to the forest to live in the hermitage of Sage Valmiki, she gave birth to two sons, Lava and Kusha. After some incidents, when Sita prayed to her Mother Earth to accept her back, her mother created an earthquake in which Sita disappeared into the crevice of earth. Seeing his mother being swallowed by the earth, Kusha ran forward to save her; but all that he could get hold on to was Sita’s hair which, as the earth closed, turned out to be grass which came to be known as Kusha grass.
In earliest Vedic literature, the Kusha grass emerged during the Samundra Manthan, churning of the cosmic seas. When the gods and demons churned the cosmic ocean as there was nothing to support the base of the Madhara Mountains, Lord Vishnu assumed the form of the Cosmic Tortoise (Kurma Avatar) and the shell of the tortoise gave the needed support. During the churning, the hairs of the tortoise rubbed off and were washed ashore and became Kusha. When Amrita, the nectar of immortality was finally achieved, few drops of it fell accidentally on the Kusha grass thus imbuing it with healing properties. The serpents around wanted a taste of this amrita and ended up licking the leaves, but they were so sharp that the serpent’s tongue were sliced in two for ever.
In another myth , the sacred mythical island called Kusha Dvipa got its name from a clump of kusha grass growing there. The island is surrounded by the Ghrta Sea or the sea of butter.
In Budhuism, Lord Buddha used this grass to make the meditation seat on which he attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree. For this reason it has a particular symbolic significance in Buddhist practice and is used in various rituals. According to early Buddhist accounts, it was the material used by Buddha for his meditation seat when he attained enlightenment.
Kusha grass is grown in the temperate and tropical regions of India and Asia and is distributed throughout India. It is tall, tufted, leafy, perennial grass, branching from the base, erect from a stout creeping rootstock. It grows upto 2 feet in height and has a sharp pointy edge.
In traditional folk medicine (Ayurveda), Darbha or Kusha grass has been used variously to treat dysentery and menorrhagia, and as a diuretic (to promote free flow of urine).
The Kusha is used as fodder for livestock and is also used as a sand binder to prevent soil erosion.
- Narasipur Char
