Knotted Tulsi Wood Mala

108 tulsi wood beads, hand knotted onto a strand, finished with a tassel and ready to wear.

Tulsi is holy basil, and it is not simply a plant associated with a deity. In Vaishnava practice the plant is itself a goddess, Tulsi, grown in a raised pot in the courtyard, watered daily, circled and greeted. A mala of her wood is the standard mala for devotion to Vishnu and Krishna, which is worth knowing before you buy it, because it carries a particular direction rather than being generic.

A mala has 108 beads and a head bead, and you work it one bead per repetition until you come back round. Why 108 gets answered a dozen different ways, depending on who you ask: the count of upanishads in the Muktika canon, the product of nine and twelve, the 107 marma points of Ayurveda with the mind counted as the last one, the distance from earth to sun in solar diameters. Nobody agrees and everybody is confident. What is not in dispute is the practical function. The beads hold the count so your attention does not have to, which frees you to actually pay attention.

Knotted rather than strung matters more than it sounds. A knot between every bead stops them grinding against each other, gives your thumb a natural stop to push off, and means that if the cord ever goes you lose one bead rather than all of them across a floor.

Good to Know

108 beads plus the head bead. Hand carved and assembled from natural wood, so bead color, grain and tassel shade vary. Keep it dry. Tulsi wood darkens with handling and picks up the oils from your hands, which is generally considered a feature.

Try It With

The rudraksha mala is the Shaiva counterpart if you are drawn the other way. Loose tulsi and tulsi tea are the same plant to burn or drink. A prayer wheel for a different way of keeping count. More in altar items.