Reach into a lotus and it is the temperature of a body. It heats itself, holds insects inside overnight, and lets them go in the morning carrying its traces to somebody else. Flowerotica closes with the flower we all agreed was about purity, and a twelfth-century poem in which a god begs a woman to put her foot on his head. The lotus is waiting to see who climbs in.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Seymour & Schultze-Motel (1996): "Thermoregulating lotus flowers," Nature, Vol. 383. Floral temperature range and thermoregulation.
2. Seymour & Schultze-Motel (1998): follow-up work on heat production and beetle pollination in Nelumbo nucifera.
3. Li & Huang (2009): "Effective pollinators of Asian sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)," Annals of Botany. Protogyny, day-one stigma receptivity, day-two anther dehiscence, overnight trapping of beetles.
4. Barbara Stoler Miller, trans. (1977): Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, Columbia University Press. Standard scholarly translation; source for structure, raga and tala assignment, and shringara framing.
5. Andrew Schelling, trans. (2008): Kamini: Poems from the Gitagovinda.
6. Lee Siegel, trans.: Gitagovinda: Love Songs of Radha and Krishna, Clay Sanskrit Library.
7. Lee Siegel (1978): Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions, as Exemplified in the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva.
8. Encyclopedia of Religion, "Jayadeva" entry. Padmavati marriage tradition and the Krishna-writes-the-couplet legend.
9. Ocaso Press: Gita Govinda translation and commentary (public domain rendering, invocation text).
10. Gita Govinda Canto X, song 19: "smara-garala-khandanam mama shirasi mandanam dehi pada-pallavam udaram." The foot-on-head verse and the love-as-poison image.
11. Gita Govinda Canto XI (Radha enters the bower) and Canto XII (the union, rati viparita, and the re-adornment song).
12. Sanskrit devotional usage of pada-padma, charana-kamala and pada-aravinda as fixed epithets for the feet of a deity, guru or elder. Miller's notes cover this; worth a scholarly cite rather than a devotional site.