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AUGUST, 1886.]
ASIATIC SYMBOLISM.
No. VI. Sacred Trees.
DISCURSIVE CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF
ASIATIC SYMBOLISM.
BY H. G. M. MURRAY-AYNSLEY.
Ν
IN Revelations xxii. 2, is mentioned "the tree
of life which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.""" Now it is most interesting to find the symbol of the tree with its twelve leaves, or occasionally the same number of flowers or fruits," on Persian carpets to this day. I have seen it also on Yarkand carpets, on which latter the tree is represented in a more conventional form. To quote Sir George Birdwood's Industrial Arts of India:-"In Yârkand carpets the tree is seen filling the whole centre of the carpet, stark and stiff as if cut out in metal; in Persian art, and in Indian art derived from the Persian, it becomes a beautiful flowering plant, or a simple sprig of flowers; in purely Hindu art it remains in its pure architectural form, as seen in temple lamps, and the models in brass and copper of the sacred fig, as the Tree of Life."
In India two figs-the banian (ficus Indica) and the pipal (ficus religiosa) are held to be especially holy. The pipal, indeed, is so sacred that oaths are taken under the shade of it and merchants will sometimes object to have one near their stalls or shops, as they say that in such case they could not ask more than a proper price for their goods! It was beneath a tree of this species that Buddha attained nirvana; and a descendant of the sacred tree (quite a young one), under which it is believed to have taken place, is still worshipped at Bôdh-Gaya. According to Buddhist tradition, it was once desired to send a branch of the original tree to Ceylon, but no knife could be permitted to touch it. In the dilemma thus caused the tree came to the rescue, for a branch dropped off of itself into the golden vessel which had been prepared for it.
The following is a curious account of a sacred fig in the East. I was fortunate enough, when
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On a fragment of a terra-cotta vase in the Museum of Antiquities at Copenhagen, supposed to belong to the Later Bronze Age, a tree is figured which the late Kamer Herr Worsaee calls the Tree of Life. It is present in connection with Sun-symbols; and a similar Treesymbol has been found in Ireland at New Grange, Drogheda.
The number seems to be invariable.
in Naples in 1883, to pick up at a street bookstall a copy of the works of Pietro della Valle, a Sicilian who visited India in 1623. In one place he speaks of a tree outside the town of Cambay, of the same kind as those which he saw on the coast of Persia, near Hormuzd where it was called lál. He adds, that it is unknown in Europe and that the Hindus style it bar (i.e. banian). The tree near Cambay was held in great veneration. "On account of its great size and antiquity the people visit it frequently, and honour it with the superstitious ceremonies belonging to their religion. It is dedicated to one of their goddesses whom they call Pârbati, and say was the wife of Mahâdeo, one of the greatest of their gods. At the trunk of this tree, not far from the ground, is a rudely sculptured circle which does not in the least resemble the human countenance, but according to their ideas is the face of their idol. They paint this circle of a bright red colour. The Romans did the same, for Pliny relates that they coloured the face of Jove with vermilion. Moreover, this sacred tree has always round it a circle of certain heart-shaped leaves, those belong to a plant which is here called pan, but in other parts of India betel."
Another interesting instance of a peculiarly sacred fig is to be found in the Fort at Allahâbâd, where there is a Hindu temple, which, owing to an accumulation of the soil, is some 20 feet below the present level of the ground, and can only be approached by descending a flight of steps. This temple is a great resort of pilgrims, and inside it the priests show the stump of a tree of the fig species, which they say miraculously throws out leaves at a certain season of the year. When I saw it the stump was perfectly bare of leaves, and had three or four branches, each about four inches in diameter and about three feet in length; they were clean cut at their upper extremities,
One of the notions of the primitive Aryan cosmogony was that of a prodigious tree, which overshadowed the whole world.
A state of complete holiness and rest according to some authorities of annihilation or absorption into the Deity according to others.
Viaggi di Pietro della Valle Il Pelegrino, In Venetia: MDCLXXXI., Presso Gian Battista Tramontino.
