pfant bore, Tscge?^/, cmil Tsyric/. 491 



tree : they say that at the hour of Buddha's nativity, whilst around 

 Kajiilavastu suddenly arose magnificent woods, an enormous As- 

 vatlha, or Bo-tree, sprang from the very centre of the universe. 



Hiouen-thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, professed to have found 



the i:5odhidruma, or some tree that passed for it, twelve hundred 

 years after Buddha's death, at a spot near Gaya Proper, in Bahar, 



where still may be seen an old temple and ruins. De Guber- 



natis tells us that there is represented in the Kdthaka Upanishad a 

 heavenly cosmogonic Asvattha under precisely the same form as 

 the Indian Bo-tree. "The eternal Asvattha, it is said, has its 

 roots above, its branches below ; it is called the Germ, Brahma, 

 Ambrosia ; beneath it all the worlds repose, above it nothing 

 exists." With its wood and that of the Acacia Suma (Sami) the 

 sacred fire is lighted — the Asvattha representing the male, the 

 Sami the female. The Asvattha, in rubbmg the Sami, engenders 

 the fire, and thus becomes an emblem of generation. From its 

 heavenly origin and from its maintaining the fire of purification, the 

 Bo-tree is credited with marvellous medicinal properties. Into a 

 vase made of Asvattha-wood the priests pour the divine drink 



Soma. In the Atharvavcda, says De Gubernatis, we are told that 



the Asvattha grows in the third heaven, and produces the Ambrosia 

 under the name of Kushtha, or flower of the Amrita. He who eats 

 the ambrosial food becomes intelligent. The cosmogonic tree of 

 the Vedas is also the Tree of Intelligence, hence Buddha, the 



apostle of intelligence, sought refuge beneath its shade. In a 



book of travels by two Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, translated by Mr. 

 Beal, we find it stated that the only spot indicated by the gods as 

 propitious to the acquirement of supreme wisdom is beneath the 

 tree Peito, which the translator identifies with the Peepul, Bo Tree, 

 or Ficus yeligiosa. In the same narrative we learn that the gods 

 construifted from the tree Sal [Shorea robusta) to the tree Bo a 

 splendid road, three thousand cubits wide. The young Prince 

 Buddha traverses the road during the night, surrounded by the 

 Devas, the Nagas, and other divine beings. Under the tree 

 Peito Buddha walked from east to west, and was worshipped 

 by the gods for the space of seven days; after that the gods con- 

 strucfted, north-west of the tree, a palace of gold, where Buddha 

 stayed for seven days. Then he repaired to the lake Mukhalinda, 

 where he sought the shadow of the tree Midella. Then the rain 

 fell for seven days, and so the Naga Mukhalinda came forth from 

 the lake and sheltered Buddha with his hood. As showing the 

 extreme fondness of Buddha for the Bo-tree, it is related by the 

 Chinese that at the commencement of his conversion, he withdrew 

 habitually beneath the tree Peito to meditate and fast. The Queen 

 became exceedingly uneasy, and, in the hope of bringing back 

 Buddha to his home, she gave orders for the Peito to be cut down. 

 But at the sight of his beloved Bo-tree razed to the earth, so 

 bitter became the grief of the seer, that he fell in a swoon to the 



