SACRED TREES 249 



house fore-court. Passing through a Brahmin 

 village in Central India, one is often reminded of 

 some clear-cut, classic bas-relief, by the glimpses 

 caught through open doorways of spotless white- 

 washed courtyards with their tulsi altars gar- 

 landed with flowers, where the women, so stately 

 in their floating veils, go about their work. 



In every Indian garden it is necessary to have 

 three kinds of trees mango, jaman, and amalaka 

 the leaves of which are used in worship, and for 

 decorations at weddings, and on the occasion 

 of a birth. Among the flowers the lotus comes 

 first, but every flowering tree is sacred in India. 

 The splendid red blossoms which come out in 

 February and March, covering the gaunt boughs 

 of the silk cotton tree (Bombax malabaricum), are 

 sacred to Siva. The dhak tree (Butea frondosa), 

 the Flame of the Forest, which burns so brightly 

 all through the same wedding months, is one of 

 Buddha's flowers. The mountain ebony (Ban- 

 hinia purpurea) is one of the most beautiful 

 of the flowering trees, with its large delicate 

 mauve blossoms whose perfume recalls the heavy 

 softness of gloxinias. The white variety is sacred 

 to the goddess of Good Fortune and Beauty, 

 the Lady Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, who 



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