Spring is in the air: March is Here, Part I

“This is the perfume of March:
Sunshine, breeze, colours and cheer,
There is music in the air.”
March is a month when the sun shines hot, and the wind blows cold. Charles Dickens has this to say about the glory of March ‘it is summer in the light and winter in the shade.’  And Jarod Kintz famously observed, “March is when some days are winter and some days are spring, but it's not a smooth gradient from the beginning of the month to the end.” The capricious yet captivating mood of March is as uncertain as it is infamous.
Yes, its uncertainties are as glorious.
The Weather, The Mood, The Uncertainty
It is not unusual for a perfectly bright and cosily warm day to be swept over by an unanticipated shower and introduce back the chill in the air. "A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, a wind comes off a frozen peak, and you’re two months back in the middle of March.”, so matter of factly wrote Robert Frost. V.E. Schwab further amplifies, “That’s the trouble with March—the warmth never lasts. There’s that narrow stretch when it parades as spring, just enough for you to thaw if you’re sitting in the sun, but then it’s gone.” 
And the weather does find reflection in our moods in as transparently visible and manifest a manner. “In March winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.” So, the conflict of elements finds ample expression in the rising and ebbing sentiments in our hearts, and the swinging leaves in the warm breeze and the dropping foliage in the afternoon drizzle so truthfully describe our mind’s harmonic motion.
It is a month that represents new growth. In Europe, its flower symbol is the charming but dainty Daffodils, which represents forgiveness, trust, honesty, and true love. But this association seems far more poetic in the following words of William Shakespeare
“Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares,
 and take
The winds of March with beauty.”
The Mango Blossom
The cheer and charm, the brilliance and brightness that Daffodils bring to the European landscape, is more than matched by the resplendence and fragrance of the mango flowers in March. If at all, it is only richer, fragrantly sensuous, and pleasantly intoxicating. The air becomes redolent and heavy with this overpowering sensual experience whose spell has been described endlessly by poets and men of letters. 
Anang’s Quiver
Of the five arrows of Anang- the Kamdev that never fail to hit its object with deadly effect, the mango blossom is the main one. The five flowers are white lotus, Ashoka tree flowers, Mango tree flowers, Jasmine flowers, and blue lotus flowers. The names of these flowers in Sanskrit in order are Aravinda, Ashoka, Choota, Navamallika, and Neelotpala.
As one of the five flower-tipped arrows of Kamdev, it plays an active role in the havoc he wreaks on women, the lovesick and the travellers away from their wives.  Even Lord Shiva fell to the overpowering spell of this potent weapon of desire and love. He succumbed to Kamdev only to later conquer him. 
The blossoming of love has been so truthfully and passionately compared to the flowering of mango blossoms.
अंकुरिते पल्लविते कोराकिते विकासिते च सहकारे |
अंकुरित: पल्लविता: कोराकितो विकासितश्च च मदनो 'सौ ||
As the mango flowers begin to swell, to put forth sprouts, to bud and finally to blossom, love too swelled, sprouted, budded, and blossomed.
Such is the charm and spell of the mango blossom.

The Tree and The Flower 
The mango is as popular in India now as it was in the days of Kalidas, but for different reasons. Sanskrit poetry tends to celebrate the fragrant mango flower more than the fruit or the leaves and as a result it is बसंत not ग्रीष्म that is the season of the mango. As the mango tree slowly and then suddenly bursts into buds and flowers, soon to assume a lustrous golden hue, बसंत has set in, with a rare elan. 
The mango flower is the very spirit and essence of spring, so said the sanskrit poet माघ. Another poet-the immortal भारवी presents spring as a female poised at the edge of the wood with mango bough in hand and anklets formed of bees.  
Mango has the distinction of having the most beautiful synonyms, rich, poignant, and sonorous.  Among many names, it also goes by the name मधु-दूत – messenger of Madhu (another name for Basanta). Another poet calls it सहकार. The helper or सहकरी of the flower-bannered god of Love. Two of the mango’s names – ‘कामांग, which means something akin to ‘Kama’s deputy’, and काम वल्लभ - ‘Kama’s lover or favourite’ – suggest just how intertwined the two are.  
And as the mango bursts into redolent and rapturous inflorescence, it mirrors so passionately and so eloquently the शृंगार रस (feeling of passionate love) that the season arouses.

(To Be Continued…..)

(Uday Kumar Varma is an IAS officer. Retired as Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting)