Mahuwa

The Mahuwa tree and
flowers on the ground
Photo: Ravi Kumar

It is the Hindu month of Vaishakh and the rural India has again got that special sweet smell of Mahua/Mahuwa flowers. In the morning, the ground under a Mahua tree is spread with white (with a greenish tint) flowers. The flowers continue dropping at a few seconds interval. If you see above in the branches to guess from where the next flower is going to drop, most likely you will fail. There you can hardly see a flower like on the ground. Before dawn, standing beneath a Mahua tree is an awesome experience with the sweet smell around and the dropping sound of the flowers.

Mahua flowers on the ground
Photo: Ravi Kumar

Villagers come near the trees with baskets and collect the flowers. The flowers are dried and sold to grocery stores. The dried flowers are used for making some recipes but generally it is used to make alcoholic drink. This home-made drink is also known as Mahua which is a country liquor. This drink is more popular in the forest dwelling tribal people as this tree is more in numbers in their areas. Mahua drinking is accepted as a part of their cultural heritage.

Mahua oil, (कोढ़ी का तेल)
In Winters

The seeds of Mahua are used to extract oil which is known as Kodhi-oil (कोढ़ी का तेल). This oil is very good for skin. It is also used to make soap and detergents. It is edible and may be used as vegetable butter. The seed cakes after the extraction of oil is used as manure.
The bark of the Mahua tree is used for medicinal purposes. The leaves and flowers are fed to goats and sheeps. The leaves are also fed to a type of silk insect (moth) and Tassar silk is obtained from them. Tassar silk is a type of wild silk.

Picking Mahua flowers
Photo: Ravi Kumar

The Mahua wood is very hard and used as timber. But seasoned Mahua wood is brittle and very difficult to work upon. So in villages, it is mostly used as Chowkhats (door frames) and carpenters work on it before it is seasoned or dry, immediately it is fixed in the walls so that no warping takes place on drying.
We see that the Mahuwa tree plays an important role in rural economy. Due to its usefulness, the tribal people consider it as a boon and revere this tree.

===O===
Instagram Link
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ZvL9ljS8S/?igshid=t4ncy1m5rvb1

___________
Mahua dried flowers and it's oil is also available online at - Amazon