Tell me I’ve been smoking grass …

Discussion
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Hear me out. The Vinaya says that the Middle Country is bounded to the north by a mountain called Usīraddhaja (pli-tv-kd5:13.12.6). This means “crest of vetiver”.

While the mountain is not exactly identified, there are several references.

Probably it’s somewhere up towards Kashmir. In fact, if we are to actually bound the Indian cultural sphere, it would be the range known today as the Hindu Kush.

Now, Wikipedia says the name “kush” is uncertain. The most obvious candidate would be the grass known as kusa or dabbha (or dabba) in Pali, kuśa or darbha in Sanskrit. But this is ruled out because these are lowland grasses that don’t grow in the arid, rocky climes of the Hindu Kush.

There’s another odd detail here. Some sources also connect this region with dārva, “the name of a tribe mentioned as inhabiting the region around ancient Kaśmīra (Kashmir valley) according to the Nīlamatapurāṇa”.

But could dārva be a local variant of darbha? If so, does this mean that for the mountainous regions at the north-west extremity of the Indian subcontinent we now have three names for grasses?

Now, call me crazy but doesn’t vetiver look a little bit like a mountain range, with the crests like the snow caps?

Vetiver_grass
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Perhaps the Hindu Kush, Dārva, and Usīraddhaja are all the same, named for the appearance of the mountains from the plains, looking like giant clumps of tall grasses crested with snow-like flowers?

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But usīra is the name of the root, not the grass, no?

Taṇhāya mūlaṁ khaṇatha,
usīratthova bīraṇaṁ;

as Dhp337 says:

dig up the root of craving
as one seeking the fragrant root (usīra) digs up the bīraṇa grass

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While one cannot see the mountains from the plains today due to air pollution, it was briefly possible during the COVID lockdown due to better AQI - for the first time in 30 years! Heck, I’ve lived there as a child and never seen the mountains.. :sweat_smile:

This is what they looked like -

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So you could be right, Bhante! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Sure, but the “crest of the root”?

OMG I was looking for a photo like this! Unfortunately, these days it seems Hindu Kush is best known as a brand of pot, which does rather spoil the search results, but gave me a title!

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Ginger Mountain? Potato Hill? Ginseng Ridge? Tapioca Bluff? It doesn’t seem that strange to me as a place name

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Greetings Bhante,

That seems possible. I grew up near a valley that had mountains bearing a similar name in Chumash. Specifically Chumash word topa - meaning “reed” or “rush” so it’s not that odd a naming convention. If you want a comparison.

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They almost don’t seem real :open_mouth:

:rofl:

This is conjecture worthy of Salman Rushdie prose

Bhante, you’re showing your age :laughing:

'Round these parts, the younger generations call it weed

:folded_hands:

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Bhante, vetiver has long been a friend of mine. Have you considered Uśīnara and Uśīnara-giri near Kanakhala, modern Kankhal/Haridwar? Vetiver grows in the Terai marshes there; it’s roots are locally known there as kush (looping round to your thoughts of the ‘Hindu Kush’ and back here again) -

This vetiver kush was long the lifeblood of the economy there, sold in the perfume markets. Per the Vetiver Network International, the wild kush harvested from these moist floodplains was considered by master perfumers of Kannauj (Kanyakubja) to have a richer, deeper, more intensely cooling, and earthy aroma than any cultivated strain.

In Xuanzang’s day, when Kannauj became Harshavardhana’s capital, this vetiver kush was an enormous (taxed) part of the economy, famed far and wide. It’s still greatly highly prized among forms of vetiver, for those who use medicinal essential oils.

In the Mahāvagga, this usīra-mūla (vetiver root) is allowable for monastic use as a lifetime medicine:

“Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, mūlāni bhesajjāni—haliddiṃ, siṅgivīraṃ, vacaṃ, vacatthaṃ, ativisaṃ, kaṭukarohiṇiṃ, usīraṃ, bhaddamuttakaṃ…”

In Cullavagga, woven fans made of vetiver grasses (usīramaya) are also allowed.

In the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya’s Bhaiṣajyavastu, when monks get ‘heat diseases,’ the Buddha himself steps in as a physician, showing how to use usīra to cure them. In the Śayanāsanavastu, usīra grass is used for monastic hut cooling screens. And in the Pravrajyāvastu, the Uśīragiri (or Uśīradhvaja) appears again, as in the Pāli, as a place name marking the northern border of the Madhyadesa.

How usīra and where it came from was repeatedly evoked in the consciousness of the composers, reciters, and hearers (and readers) of Vinaya…

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