of their deity's name." *[1] Writing in the seventeenth century, Vincenzo Maria †[2] observes that " almost all the Hindus . . . adore a plant like our Basilico gentile, but of a more pungent odour . . . Every one before his house has a little altar, girt with a wall half an ell high, in the middle of which they erect certain pedestals like little towers, and in these the shrub is grown. They recite their prayers daily before it, with repeated prostrations, sprinklings of water, etc. There are also many of these maintained at the bathing-places, and in the courts of the pagodas." The legend, accounting for the sanctity of the tulsi, is told in the Padma Purāna.‡[3] From the union of the lightning that flashed from the third eye of Siva with the ocean, a boy was born, whom Brahmadēv caught up, and to whom he gave the name of Jalandhar. And to him Brahmadēv gave the boon that by no hand but Siva's could he perish. Jalandhar grew up strong and tall, and conquered the kings of the earth, and, in due time, married Vrinda (or Brinda), the daughter of the demon Kalnemi. Naradmuni, the son of Brahmadēv, stirred up hatred against Siva in Jalandhar, and they fought each other on the slopes of Kailās. But even Siva could not prevail against Jalandhar, so long as his wife Vrinda remained chaste. So Vishnu, who had lived with her and Jalandhar, and had learnt their secret, plotted her downfall. One day, when she, sad at Jalandhar's absence, had left her garden to walk in the waste beyond, two demons met her and pursued her. She ran, with the demons following, until she saw a Rishi, at whose feet she fell,
