Basil, Ocimum basilicum, is a tender aromatic annual of the mint family, native to tropical Asia and Africa and long naturalised in the Mediterranean kitchen. Its name comes from the Greek basilikon, royal, marking it a kingly herb, but the same word invited a link to the basilisk, the deadly serpent of legend, and basil carried a genuinely split reputation in the old herbals, praised by some, condemned by others, with a persistent tale that it bred scorpions or that scorpions bred in the brain of those who smelled it too much. It should be kept distinct from holy basil or tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum), a different and sacred species of Hinduism.
Holy basil, tulsi, kept carefully distinct above from the sweet basil this article otherwise describes, carries a major devotional life of its own in Hinduism: the plant is worshipped as a goddess, an embodiment of Vishnu's devotion, commonly grown in a special pot or shrine in the courtyard of Hindu homes and temples, and the ceremony of Tulsi Vivah ritually marries the tulsi plant to Vishnu each autumn, one of the relatively few plants in any major world religion to be venerated as a deity in its own right rather than merely dedicated to one.