Object · Shaiva · Pan-India
Ketaki flower
The fragrant screwpine blossom that, in the Shiva Purana line of the pillar-of-light story, falls from the top of the fiery column and agrees to bear false witness that Brahma reached the summit. Shiva bars it from his worship for the lie. It is absent from the Kurma Purana council version and from the Tiruvannamalai district's official telling.
Sources: Lingodbhava — Hinduism Facts; Pandanus odorifer (ketaki / screwpine) — Wikipedia; Shiva Purana, Vidyeshvara Samhita — part 3 (serialised paraphrase, Boloji) · see Ketaki flower's web