Quest For The Magical Healing Flower In The Garden Of Bakavali Led To A Love Story

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - The description of the Garden of Bakavali can be found in Gul-e-Bakavali, one of the earliest Persian–Arabic and Hindustani stories collated by the British at the Fort William College in Calcutta at the turn of the nineteenth century.

The text mentions Gul, a flower that possesses extraordinary healing powers. It is believed to grow behind a legendary mountain called Kohi Kaff (today's Pamirs). Superhuman creatures and supernatural beings inhabit this region.

Magnificent Garden of Bakavali Was Not Easy To Find

Mythical gardens are always filled with the most beautiful trees, stunning flowers, and plants, and the Garden of Bakavali was a heavenly place.

The Garden of Bakavali was a magical place where one could find the most beautiful plants. Credit: Public Domain

"It is related that in the mythic Garden of Bakavali there grew trees of rubies with bunches of fruit so brilliant that they were equal to the clusters of stars which group themselves around the Tree of the Sun." ¹

Like Greek nymphs guarded Hesperides, the fabled garden with divine apples of immortality, the Garden of Bakavali was also complicated to access. This was where magical plants grew, and the garden's location was kept secret, and only a few knew where it could be found.

Prince Taj-al-Maluke And The Quest For Gul, The Healing Flower

In the story, Zainal Maluke, a king of eastern lands, warns his astrologers to stay away from his son Taj-al-Maluke for 12 years because the young man is under a bad star. Unfortunately, the father sees his son and goes blind.

When Taj-al-Maluke is excommunicated for causing blindness to his royal father, he understands he must do something. He learns about a powerful flower that can restore sight and decides to go and search for it, but it is located in a garden that is almost impossible to reach.

Prince Taj-al-Maluke is a courageous young man who is not afraid of challenging obstacles. He travels to foreign lands where he encounters threatening creatures and dangers lurking wherever he goes. However, the young man is determined to find the flower to save his father. In some versions of the story, the prince learns about the healing flower from God Indra.

Like most heroes, Taj-al-Maluke is courageous, motivated, and unstoppable. As Amaresh Datta explains in the Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, "his determination and single-mindedness in the face of all kinds of odds, natural as well as supernatural, is exceptional and most behaving of a typical hero. Even his cowardice and unscrupulous step-brothers conspire against him. Taj-al-Maluke not only outwits them but also saves rescues them from the bad situations."

It takes time, and the prince must overcome many dangers, but finally, he finds the mysterious Garden of Bavakali which is also home to a beautiful princess.

Prince Taj-al-Maluke had to find the magical flower to restore his father's eyesight. Credit: Public Domain

"Taj break into the Garden of Bakavali, steals the flower but loses his heart to the sleeping beauty Bakavali. The next morning Bakavali wakes to find to her utter disbelief her favorite flower gone and a golden ring on her finger. She pledges to avenge the theft. But in the process falls in love with Taj, gets betrothed to him, her parents punish her and turn her into stone. Taj-al-Maluke liberates her. But her woes do not end here. She is burnt alive, is born again in a poor family and gets married to Taj." ²

The story of the Garden of Bakavali and prince Tal-al-Maluke's quest for the magical flower Gul is a love story that is well-known throughout Asia, and there are various versions of this myth.

Updated on February 14, 2022

Written by Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com

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