In Siam, according to Mr. Alabaster, offerings are commonly made in the present day to the spirits or deities inhabiting trees. People hang various votive objects on the branches, or place them on a stand or altar beneath any particular tree whose deity they wish to propitiate. Moreover they are very averse to the cutting down of any trees of any kind, lest the tree-gods should be angry.
‘Some years ago,’ says Mr. Alabaster, ‘when I employed my spare energy in showing the Siamese how to make roads in the, till then, roadless suburbs of Bangkok, I had to cut my lines through villages, temple-groves, orchards, plantations, and patches of jungle. For the “wicked” duty of cutting down the trees, a gang of the lowest criminals was placed at my disposal.’ But he adds that the removal of any specially holy building or tree was interdicted by the Government.
We have already seen that, according to the theory of later Buddhism, every Buddha is supposed to have his own special tree under which he sat and meditated, and in the end attained supreme knowledge (see [p. 136]). For example, there is the Pippala (also called Aṡvattha, Ficus Religiosa) sacred fig-tree of Gautama Buddha, the Vaṭa or Banyan-tree (Ficus Indica) of Kāṡyapa Buddha, the Uḍumbara (Ficus Glomerata) of Kanaka-muni; the Ṡirīsha (Acacia Serisa) of Kraku-Ććhanda; the Ṡāla (Shorea Robusta) of Viṡva-bhū; the Puṇḍarīka (White Lotus) of Ṡikhin[267]; the Pāṭali (Bignonia Suaveolens) of Vipaṡyin.
These six Buddhas with Gautama are sometimes held to be the seven principal Buddhas, and, according to some authorities, the tree of the future Buddha (Maitreya) will be the Iron-wood tree (Sideroxylon)[268]. Specimens of some of these trees are to be found growing in the area of the Buddha-Gayā temple, and several are represented in the sculptures of the Stūpa of Bharhut (of the second century B.C.). On one of the pillars of that Stūpa elephants are carved in the act of worshipping both the Pīpal-tree and the Banyan-tree. In fact it must be borne in mind that Gautama Buddha is said to have meditated under both of these trees, and is therefore connected with both (see [p. 39]).
It might have been expected, too, that the Ṡāl-tree would have ranked next in sacredness to the Pīpal and Banyan; for according to one legend, Māyā gave birth to Gautama while standing under a Ṡāl-tree, and according to another legend, Gautama died on a couch placed between two Ṡāl-trees (pp. [23], [50]). This tree, however, appears to be more honoured in connexion with the Buddha Viṡva-bhū ([p. 136, note 1]).
There are other trees which were held in veneration by Indian Buddhists:—for example, the Mango (Āmra) and the Jambu, and the Aṡoka. The first of these appears frequently in sculptures, and is known by the shape of its fruit.
Two other trees under which the Buddha is said to have meditated after his attainment of Buddhahood—namely, the Mućalinda-tree[269] and the Rājāyatana-tree—are not identified.
But among all trees revered by all Buddhists of all nationalities, the Aṡvattha or Pippala (Pīpal), under which Gautama achieved Buddhahood and perfect knowledge, takes the precedence. In some Buddhist countries the climate prevents its introduction, but if it can by any means be made to grow, it is everywhere planted close to Buddhist temples, monasteries and Dāgabas, and in many cases is the product of a seed brought from the supposed original tree at Buddha-Gayā.
A tradition relates that Gautama during his lifetime directed Ānanda to break off a branch from that original tree and to plant it in the garden of the Vihāra, or monastery, at Ṡrāvastī—Gautama’s favourite place of residence—‘He who worships it,’ said Gautama, ‘will receive the same reward as if he worshipped me[270].’
This is a mere legend resting on no historical basis; but the tradition which makes Gautama choose a seat under the sacred Pippala or Aṡvattha as the spot where the first stirrings of a divine afflatus and the first whisperings of divine communications—symbolized by the mysterious quivering and rustling of its leaves—were likely to make themselves felt, points to a probable fact—a fact quite in harmony with what we have already noted in regard to his early Brāhmanical education and ideas. We read in the Kaṭha Upanishad (VI. 1) that the root of the Aṡvattha-tree was identified with the Supreme Being, Brahman. In a passage of the Muṇḍaka Upanishad (III. 1. 1) and in a Mantra of the Ṛig-veda (I. 164. 20) the same idea is alluded to. It is true that Gautama afterwards repudiated the possibility of any divine inspiration coming from any external source whatever, yet it is probable that when he first seated himself under the sacred fig-tree, which is even now regarded by the Hindūs as a manifestation of the god Brahmā, he expected supernatural communications of some kind[271].