A jasmine bud is no bigger than a fingernail. The People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), which visited growers around Madurai in 2021, 2022 and 2023, describes pickers snapping the buds off with only thumb and forefinger, then racing to get them to the flower market before they bloom.
Madurai malli has a Geographical Indication. Among the traits listed for it are thick petals, buds that open late, and a long shelf life.
No Calendar
Wedding dates are set months ahead. PARI notes that jasmine does not observe auspicious days: after a spell of sun and a good shower, the fields bloom whatever the date.
In wedding and festival season, PARI reports, jasmine sells for many times what scent factories pay when the market is flooded.
At a Brahmin Iyengar wedding our team worked on, the bride’s garland was malli, and so were the strings that hung from the mandap.
Strings of malli hang from the mandap over the couple, who show their henna-painted hands.
“Farming flowers is a lottery, it’s all about the timing.” PARI
Pickers drop the buds into a fold of their sarees or dhotis, and empty them into sacks later.
Source: “In TN: the struggles behind the scent of jasmine,” Aparna Karthikeyan, People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), 19 March 2023.
More from this wedding: Half of It Shows.
- jasmine
- madurai malli
- iyengar wedding
- wedding flowers
