Kalpataru, The Tree Of Plenty

Kalpataru (Kalpvriksh, Kapadap and Kalpadrum) is a mythical tree supposed to fulfill every want.

 It was during the churning of the ocean of milk by gods and demons that this jewel-studded tree of gold is said to have emerged, promptly taken by Indra to be planted in Nandan-Kanan, the entertainment park of the gods.

Kalpa means the cycle of creation and destruction. At the end of each Kalpa, or cycle, the tree is to go back into the Ocean of Milk.

Although the original Kalpataru was planted in the garden of heaven, a seed is also said to have fallen and taken root on the Himalayan slope below, where super-humans called Vidyadhars lived.

It brought the Vidyadhar kings much property. King Jeemutketu even received a son by its favour. This son, named Jeemutavahan, paid to the tree to fulfil the wishes of everybody in the land, not just the king.

The Kalpataru tree did so, but it only made the Vidyadhars become lazy and throw out their good king!

Human beings have no such wish-fulfilling wonder. But the coconut and the banyan, because of their multiple uses, are sometimes described as Kalpataru.