222 The Vashi Yaga. [No. 3, 



As early as the Barnayana, the planting of a groirp of trees was 

 held meritorious. The celebrated Panchavati garden where Sitd was 

 imprisoned, has been reproduced by many a religious Hindu, and 

 should any of them not have sufficient space to cultivate the 

 five trees, the custom is to plant them in a small pot where they 

 are dwarfed into small shrubs. Such substitutes and make-shifts 

 are not at all uncommon in the ecclesiastical history of India. In 

 Buddhist India, millions of miniature stone and clay temples, some 

 of them not higher than two inches, were often dedicated when more 

 substantial structures were not possible. The Panchavati consists of 

 the as'vatha planted on the east side, the vilva or JEgle marmelos 

 on the north, the banian on the west, the Emblica officinalis on the 

 south and the asoka on the south-east.* 



The Skanda Purana recommends a vilva in the centre and four 

 others on four sides ; four banians in four corners, twenty-five 

 asokas in a circle, with a myrobalan, on one side, as the constituents 

 of a great punchavati.f 



Superstition has always been active in drawing nice distinctions 

 between the auspicious and the inauspicious, and it is curious to 

 observe how the auspicious qualities of some plants have been 

 extolled. Some are considered auspicious when planted near a 

 dwelling house. 



No tree with fruits or blossoms can be cut down, as the following 

 sloka threatens the cutter with the destruction of his family and 

 wealth. 



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