"Kundu Mani was used as a unit of measurement, because of their consistent weight" - Tree Walk @ MCC Today

The Trees are Alive! | Nature Trails Walk in MCC

29th March 2025 | A Report

When an eminent ethnolinguist and a Botanist Came Together for a Tree Walk

Listening to tree and trail connoisseurs is indeed an experience. It ‘modifies your sensibility’. Today proved to be such a day, when you had your sensibilities enriched for the better, in the company of legends. 

The Nature Trails Walk in MCC, started sharp at 6.45 am near the College Bell Tower.

Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, pioneer of Ecocriticism in India, Dr. Narasimhan, eminent botanist, (who also has a few species of plants named after him), Dr. Reji, Staff Advisor of Scrub Society, and Dr. Rufus accompanied the students.

The first stopover was on Principal’s Drive, where Dr. Narasimhan introduced us to the uniqueness of the trees lined up on either side of the Principal’s Drive – of the Bignoniaceae family, also known as the trumpet vine family, known for their beautiful, trumpet-shaped flowers.

They are very shallow-rooted but grow very tall. This is one of the unique characteristic features of rain-forest trees, particularly in South American rainforests. The rainforest trees are so dense, and the trees act as a dense canopy. 

Moreover, these rainforest trees are known for their impressive height, reaching up to 200 feet or even more. These trees have large, flared roots (buttress roots) that extend above the ground, providing stability in the often-soft soil and helping to absorb nutrients from the surface.  The buttress roots provide side-support to the tall trees. (When Dr. Nirmal gently intervened to say – the word buttress is an architectural term that they’ve borrowed!), he averred.

Dr. Edward Barnes was the architect of this campus. He found the birds and bats dispersing seeds, and he allowed such plants to grow! That’s why you find a beautiful scrub jungle in Campus. Barnes recorded every plant that came up. You look up the old College magazines, and you can find how meticulously he has recorded all the plant varieties. Wherever he went, he used to bring back a load of seeds. Those are the plants that have taken shape now, and adorn the campus. So the plants here are not bought from nurseries, said Dr. Narasimhan.

The Flowering Plants of Madras City and its Immediate Neighbourhood is a book written by Pallassana Vaithi Pattar Mayuranathan, Superintendent, Government Press, 1929, where there are empty papers kept between its pages and bound. And in these empty pages, his wife Alice Barnes has written beautiful notes about the College. Both Dr Barnes and his wife Alice Barnes were working together on this. It’s now in the College Library. You just have to ask the College Librarian, he added.

If the Magazines are not available, the British Museum has documented all of this. You can access it there as well. At that point of time, they micro-filmed everything. Now it would have been digitized. Our College Magazines are great historical material, suggested Dr. Nirmal.

“Every avenue has a story. You have to dig it up and tell your friends”, said Dr. Narasimhan.

Dr. Reji added that, yet another interesting point is that, Dr. Barnes was not a Botanist at all. He was a Chemist, who was very passionate about plants.

The Nerum Oleander which is colloquially called the Arali flower is indeed a very poisonous plant. All parts of the plant - including the flowers, leaves, stems, and roots, contain toxic cardiac glycosides, which are poisonous. Interestingly, the fruit of the arali plant is edible, and I’ve also tasted it, said Dr. Narasimhan.

The Arali plant doesn’t need much water too. That’s why it’s planted in the medians of highways, he added.

We also had a look at the Aana Kundu Mani (Kunnikuru in Malayalam) Abrus precatorius also called the Crab eye plant - a slender, climbing herb with peculiar bright red seeds. It is usually found creeping over shrubs, plant and hedges. It is also considered a toxic herbal plant because of the presence of abrin toxin in the plant seeds, said Dr. Narasimhan.

Dr. Nirmal added to say that, Kundu Mani was used as a unit of measurement, because of their consistent weight! In fact they were prized and cherished for their weight, that remained a constant even under varying moisture conditions, due to the water-impermeable seed coat. Hence it was called the jeweller’s weight. I’ve seen it in my father’s office. It was a very small balance.

The seeds were used to weigh gold and other precious materials, with a single seed representing a unit called “ratti”, and eight such seeds were supposed to measure one sovereign, said Dr. Narasimhan.

That’s why the expression, ‘oru kundumani thangam kooda veetla illa’ meaning – There’s not even one ratti of gold in the house, alluding to the poverty of the house.

Pooja added to say that, in Kerala, these bright red manjadi seeds are commonly used to play the traditional board game Pallanguzhi. Dr. Nirmal joined in to say that in Tamil Nadu tamarind seeds were used to play the same game.

Our next stopover was the rose wood, which is called the bastard rose wood, since it is not the original rose wood. In the process he also busted a lot of myths associated with certain trees, plants and fruits.

Dr. Nirmal then added to recommend a book by Ms. Maneka Gandhi titled, Brahma’s Hair: The Mythology of Indian Plants in which she writes about the wonderful world of mythology that has grown around thirty Indian plants and trees.

Then we moved to the beautiful red sanders tree. Usually, the red sanders sports a ‘once-forked’ branch on them, said Dr. Narasimhan.

Dr. Reji added an interesting observation saying that, many architects have made use of the structure of the red sanders for their architecture.

It’s called Biomimicry in architecture, also known as biomimetic design - a design approach that draws inspiration from nature to create innovative and sustainable buildings by studying and emulating natural systems and processes.

I have a friend called Mr. Shankar from Thrissur gives lectures on Biomimicry, added Dr. Narasimhan.

At this point, Dr. Nirmal added to say that, literature students would have been introduced to the area of ecosemiotics, in which biomimicry is a subfield.

Near the Red Sanders, Dr. Nirmal recollected the exact spot as the place where the poetry group called Vanam used to meet regularly. Na Muthu Kumar (late) one of the founding members of the group, was also part of this Vanam, he added.

Vanam published two anthologies – Vaanam Piranthathu (the Sky is Born) which is prescribed in Tamil Departments in many institutions, and available in the College Library, and the next book is titled, Vanam Malarnthathu.

Dr. Nirmal then recited a poem from one of the books, (written by him) on Mullaipuravu – and the ideal location for a family is Mullai, he averred.

Dr. Narasimhan gladly intervened to say that, he had written one such poem in Tamil which was translated into English by Dr. Nirmal. It’s titled, Mannithuvidu Magane. (Forgive me, my son). Someone who listened to the poem found it so profound, that they translated it into Hindi, he said.

“The beautiful river sand in which I once danced, you don’t have them anymore…” goes the poem.

MCC is typical mullai landscape, plains and places with low elevations, while Kurinji is places with high elevation, places where animals graze, said Dr. Narasimhan.

A scrub jungle, said Dr. Nirmal.

So usually places ending with ‘Paadi’ are Mullai region.

Vyasarpadi, Vaniyambadi, Katpadi – where cattle graze, he said.

Kurichi, Alwarkurichi is Mountainous, while words ending in Paakam come under Neithal.

Marutham is a riverine place. Maruthancode in KK District is an example, said Dr. Narasimhan.

To be continued…

The Tree Walk ended with a stroll to the College Cafeteria. 

PS: You may want to read on yet another past Tree Walk we had in Campus 13 years ago, on 28th January 2012, HERE, on our blog.