Patri Hunt !

  Vinayaka Chavithi  is a very significant agrarian festival that always  leaves children with amazing experience.

 When we were young,  the fun  used to start  early in the morning . We ,the children of our neighborhood ,used to go around the village to collect Patri .We used bet on huge collections of diverse leaves and fetch  around the village fields , orchards, gardens, bunds of tank and canals .It was amazing fun to quickly identify and pluck the leaves that we need for the day. We often used to collect flowers and  now and then add surprise first bloom fruits, kasaru kaayalu.

This “Patri hunt “was hand in hand with collecting clay for Idol making. Along with the family idol, these little ones made by our small hands used to take pride place on  the puja peetham under palavelli.

Offering of  108 leaves  to Ganapathi as “Patri” on this festival draws attention to abundance rich  flora handed over to us over generations. Our ancient wisdom indicates that each of these plants has medicinal properties, extracts of which used to help  community to cure common ills. What used to be a general awareness in using these plants and their products, is presently forgotten .

Patri Hunt  makes us  to understand the importance of varied  plants for their medicinal values and aromatic usages. This is the time we should explain our children about the diversity of plants and their role in medicine ,Ayurveda , and eventually adopted by allopathy .

Patri contains  at-least 21 varieties of  leaves depending upon the agro-climatic region where one stays. For example, the given list doesn't contain  vepa (Neem), velakkaya (Forest apple), neredu (Blue Berry), mogali ( Kewda) etc which we find in the list of our region.

 The basic objective of listing 21 different varieties is to help our children understand the concept that nature has gifted a diverse flora, which we need to appreciate and  protect to pass on to future generations. 

After the immersion of the  clay idol, the fertile soil collected from the village tank used reach the tank again along with all these medicinal herbs and turmeric “Gouri.”

That’s our ancient wisdom!

As village children ,we enjoyed  open fields to explore and learn. Our present Mid-Town children live away from green neighborhoods where they can happily move around and fetch “Patri”

However, they can easily collect  the readily available pathri from the local market.

Kindly try to encourage your child to explore your own home garden and neighborhood  You can also plan a village trip to make the patri hunt a family fun.

        Following is the glossary of 21 plants in Sanskrit, Telugu with their Botanical Names. This glossary should ignite the curious child to understand the diversity of the nature.

Our understanding is our child’s understanding. 

So, we enclose the details about the patri . Happy Vinayaka Chavithi.

Sl. No	Sanskrit Name	Name in Telugu	Botanical Name
1	Machipatram	Machipatri	Artemesia Vulgaris
2	Bruhateepatram	Vaakudaaku	Solanum Xanthocarpum
3	Bilvapatram	Maaredu	Aegle Marmelos
4	Doorvayugmam	Garika	Cynodon Dactylon
5	Datturapatram	Ummetta	Datura Metel
6	Badareepatram	Regu	Zizyphus Jujuba
7	Aapamargapatram	Uttareni	AchyrathusAspera
8	Tulasipatram	Tulasi	Ocimum Sanctum
9	Chootapatram	Mamidaaku	Mangifera Indica
10	Karaveerapatram	Ganneru	Nerium Odorum
11	Vishnukrantapatram	Vishnukanta	Evolvulus Arvensis
12	Daadimeepatram	Danimma	Punica Granatum
13	Devadaarupatram	Devadaaru	Erythroxylum Monogynum
14	Maruvakapatram	Maruvam	Marjorana Hortensis
15	Sindhuvarapatram	Vavili	Vitex Negundo
16	Jaajipatram	Jaaji Aaku	Jasminum Auriculatum
17	Gandakeepatram	Devakanchanam	Bauhinia Variegata
18	Semeepatram	Jammi Aaku	Prosopis Cineraria
19	Aswadhapatram	Raavi Aaku	Ficus Religiosa
20	Arjunapatram	Tellamaddi	Terminalia Arjuna
21	Arka Patram	Jilledu	Calotropis Procera

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