Tree Tale Kadamba | Telugu |
Channel: Arvind Gupta
Date: 28/01/2015

Well we are sitting in the parking lot of Akashganga in IUCAA, Pune. IUCAA is the astronomy research institute based in the Pune University. We are sitting below a very important tree. In Hindi it’s called Kadamba. Now Kadamba has been immortalized by Surdas the Hindi poet who wrote hymns in praise of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna would play the flute standing in front of the Kadamba tree with the Yamuna River flowing in front of him. This is the fruit of the Kadamba tree which is like a tennis balls covered all over with flowers. The Kadamba tree has a great astronomical significance. The great Indian astronomer Aryabhatta, imagined the flowers on the Kadamba ball like humans standing on Earth and all of them being pulled towards the center because of the force of gravity. 
I can poke a stick on top of the fruit to represent a human being; another one could be standing on the side and one down below. The whole sphere will be covered with human beings. But the one who is below will still not fall because of the pull of gravity. All humans irrespective of where they stand on earth are pulled to the center of the earth by gravity. Apart from being a beautiful tree the Kadamba also has an astronomical significance. This work was supported by IUCAA and Tata Trust. This film was made by Ashok Rupner TATA Trust: Education is one of the key focus areas for Tata Trusts, aiming towards enabling access of quality education to the underprivileged population in India. To facilitate quality in teaching and learning of Science education through workshops, capacity building and resource creation, Tata Trusts have been supporting Muktangan Vigyan Shodhika (MVS), IUCAA's Children’s Science Centre, since inception. To know more about other initiatives of Tata Trusts, please visit www.tatatrusts.org