Tulsi Ji

Tulsi, or Tulasi, the holy basil plant, is worshipped as a goddess in her own right, regarded as an earthly manifestation of Lakshmi and, consequently, the constant devotional companion of Vishnu; a Tulsi plant is kept and venerated in the courtyard of many Hindu homes.

In her own mythic narrative she is known as Vrinda, wife of the asura Jalandhara (Shankhachuda in some tellings), before her transformation into the sacred plant that bears her more common name, Tulsi.

She has no anthropomorphic temple image comparable to major goddesses; she is worshipped directly as the living plant itself, typically grown in a special pedestal (tulsi vrindavan) in home courtyards, with a leaf of the plant considered an essential, non-negotiable element of Vishnu worship.

As Vrinda, her unbroken chastity was the source of her husband Jalandhara's invincible strength; Vishnu, to end his tyranny, took Jalandhara's own form through illusion (Yogamaya) and thereby caused Vrinda unknowingly to break her fidelity, at which point Jalandhara lost his power and was slain. Discovering the deception, Vrinda cursed Vishnu to become stone (an episode connected to his worship in shaligrama form) before ending her own life; from her, tradition holds, the Tulsi plant arose, and Vishnu vowed never again to accept worship without her leaves.

Regarded as an avatar or manifestation of Lakshmi, and so eternally linked to Vishnu; the annual Tulsi Vivah ceremony formally re-enacts her marriage to him, performed using a shaligrama or amla branch to represent Vishnu.

Tulsi leaves are considered essential in Vishnu and Krishna worship across nearly all Vaishnava traditions, and Tulsi Vivah, held on the eleventh or twelfth day of the bright half of Kartik, marks the traditional start of the Hindu wedding season.

Her cultivation and worship as a household goddess are near-universal across Hindu India regardless of region, though the precise form of the Tulsi Vivah ritual and the version of her origin story told vary between communities and traditions.