URTIGAGE^, 339 



the Soma, are to be made of it ; its branches are the Vedas. In 

 the Valakhiljja^ a collection of apocryphal hymns in the Rirj- 

 vedciy the marriage of the actual tree with Tulasiis enjoined; it 

 is worshipped on Saturdays in the month of Sravan and on 



' 



Somvutis or " lunar days/' Women perform Pradakshina, 

 ^* walking: round it from left to right/' to secure the survival of 



their husbands and good luck generally, as Savitri^ the wife of 

 Satyavan, is said to have recovered her deceased husband by its 

 worship* The thread ceremony and marriage of the tree with 

 the Durva {Cynodon Daelf/loa) is also performed by women. 

 Sacrificial spoons are still made from its wood. F, rellgiosa is 

 the BiidJiidrUy or tree of wisdom^ of the Jains and Buddhists^ who 



relate that at the birth of the Buddha an enormous Asvattha 

 sprung from the centre of the universe, an ofishoot, no doubt, of 

 the Vedic and cosmogonic tree. In the Raja Nirffhanta ithears 

 the synonyms of Yajnika "sacrificial/' Srimana " fortunate," 

 Vipra " wise/' Sevya " worthy of worship," &c. Its root-bark, 

 together with that of the three other species of Fieus placed at the 

 head of this article, and the root-bark of the Neem, form the 

 Panchavalkala or ** five barks," and a decoction of them (pancha- 

 valkala kashoya) is much used as a gargle in salivation^ as a 

 wash for ulcers, and as an astringent injection in leueorrhoea. 

 The powdered root-bark of the Asvattha, rubbed with honey, is 

 applied to apthee and unhealthy ulcers to promote granulation, 



F. hengalensis^ the Vata or Nyagrodha, has been sometimes 

 confounded with the Asvattha ; both trees bear the synonyms 

 Bah upada '* many-footed," and Sikhandin '* crested," but the 

 Vata is specially described as Skandaja " born of the trunk/' 

 Ava-roha-sayin ''sending down branches," Skanda-ruha "grow- 

 ing from its own trunk," Pada-rohana, &c* In Indian 

 mythology an enormous Vata tree is supposed to grow upon 

 mount Suparsva, to the south of the celestial mount Meru, and 

 to cover eleven yojanas ; in the Vishun Purana we find a 

 similar account of the Pippala growing on mount Vipula and 

 covering eleven hundred yojanas. Devaki, when pregnant with 

 Krishna, is said to have taken refuge under a Vata tree from 

 Kansa, who had destroyed her first six children. The tree was a 



