Abstract
The sacred pīpal, at whose foot the Buddha had attained Enlightenment, is generally known as the Mahābodhi Tree to distinguish it from the other bodhi trees. Though quite a few other bodhi trees appear to be older than the present Mahābodhi Tree, this pīpal is considered as the most sacred among all the bodhi trees for the reason that the Diamond Throne is located at its foot which the Buddhists believe to be the exact spot of Enlightenment. Indians have been worshipping the sacred pīpal since pre-historic period and it is quite probable that the Mahābodhi Tree existed as a caityavṛkṣa (tree-shrine) or a vanacetiya (forest-shrine) during the pre-Buddhist period. The Hindus venerate the Mahābodhi Tree and perform their fourth day’s ritual of piṇḍadāna (oblations to ancestors) at its foot. The Buddhists believe that site of the Mahābodhi Tree forms the navel of the earth (pṛthvīnābhi). During the lifetime of the Buddha himself, the Mahābodhi Tree came to represent him and was used as a shrine (caitya). Emperor Aśoka visited the Mahābodhi Tree during the tenth year of his reign as part of his Dharma pilgrimage and either built a caitya here or most probably replenished the already existing caitya. Some Buddhist texts mention that Aśoka’s queen Tiṣyarakṣitā and king Śaśāṅka had completely destroyed this tree. There is also at least one recorded incident when it fell down due to a storm in the year 1876 and Alexander Cunningham planted its sapling some distance away from the original spot “to protect the temple from being harmed” and another one some 80 feet away to the north for “Hindu worshippers”. Interestingly, a recent DNA fingerprinting conducted by the Forest Research Institute (FRI) of Dehradun indicates that “the north peepal tree is older and more authentic as compared to the current Bodhi tree.” On the basis of the report of the FRI, the Temple Management Committee has implemented a number of precautions over the years to ensure that the tree stays in good health. Also, as a backup, an offspring of the Mahābodhi Tree was planted in 2010 that “can take over” should the need arise in the future.
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Notes
- 1.
Some of the texts of the Pāli Tipiṭaka call it the Mahābodhirukkha. (for instance, Fausböll 1877–1897: iv.228; Warren 1951: 403; Norman 1906–15: 1.105; Woodward 1940–49: 62). Emperor Aśoka in his Rock Edict VIII at Girnar in Gujarat and Kalsi in Uttarakhand calls it Saṃbodhi (see Hultzsch 1925: 14–15, 36–37; Barua 1943: 186). Alexander Cunningham, who had planted its sapling in 1881, also occasionally referred to it as the Mahābodhi Tree in his writings, to distinguish it from the other bodhi trees (for instance, 1892: 31).
- 2.
According to tradition (Oldenberg 1879: 197; Geiger 1912: XIX:128–135), a sapling of the original tree was planted in Sri Lanka sometime towards the middle of the third century BCE (circa 245 BCE) by Emperor Aśoka’s daughter. It is the oldest living human-planted flowering plant (angiosperm) in the world and according to the Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, is the twelfth oldest living tree in the world and the oldest in South Asia (http://www.rmtrr.org/oldlist.htm).
- 3.
Its roots can easily make a way into the stem of the support, in due course splitting it from within. Ficus religiosa has been listed as an “environmental weed” or “naturalized weed” by the Global Compendium of Weeds (Randall 2012) and the Invasive Species Compendium (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/24168#tosummaryOfInvasiveness). The primary reasons responsible for its invasive behaviour are its ability to grow in different soil types as well as climate zones, fast-growing nature, very long lifespan, and its growth habit as an epiphyte.
- 4.
Plakṣa is most probably Sanskrit term for ficus religiosa which the Hindu scriptures associate with the source of the Sarasvatī river (see, e.g., Vāmana Purāṇa.XXXII.1–4), the Sarasvatī rose from the Plakṣa tree. Similarly, in the Ṛgveda Sūtras (Aśvalāyana Śrauta Sūtra,XII.6,1; Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra.XIII.29,24), Plakṣa Prasravana refers to the source of the Sarasvatī (see Macdonell and Keith 1912, II: 55).
- 5.
Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna (Bhagavad Gita X.26.): “Among all the trees, I am the sacred fig” (aśvatthaḥ sarvavṛkṣāṇāṃ) (Sargeant 1984: 436).
- 6.
Majority of the references from the purāṇas have been borrowed from Haberman 2013: 73–74.
- 7.
- 8.
However, it appears that later when Devadatta proposed that monks ought to be rukkhamūlikatta or rukkhamūlakas (dwellers at the foot of a tree) Buddhaghoṣa listed the cetiyarukkhas among those trees which are not to be chosen for the practice of “living at the foot of a tree” (see Warren 1951: 74).
- 9.
A square measure of land which may be nearly an acre (see Rhys Davids and Stede 1921–25: 196; Shukla 2008: 388) .
- 10.
According to the Mahāvaṃsa, this happened in the eighteenth year (Geiger 1908: XX.I).
- 11.
Devānaṃpiye/Devānaṃpriyo Piyadasi lājā/rājā dasa/das[a]-varsābhisito/vasābhisite saṃto/saṃtaṃ ayāya nikhamithā Saṃbodhiṃ/Saṃbodhi tenesā/tenatā dhaṃma-yātā (When king Devānāṃpriya Priyadarśin had been anointed ten years, he went out to Saṃbodhi. Therefore these tours of Dharma [were undertaken] here) (see Hultzsch 1925: 14–15, 36–37; Barua 1943: 186).
- 12.
Strangely, Alexander Cunningham believed that as the ficus religiosa is a short-lived tree, “there must have been a long succession of fresh trees raised from seed, from the time of Aśoka down to the present day; perhaps as many as twelve or fifteen, or even twenty, to meet the frequent destruction to which it was exposed” (Cunningham 1982: 31). Ficus religiosa is not a short-lived tree and can easily survive for a thousand years. As some of the incidents of its destruction mentioned in Buddhist texts or sources are credible, the present Mahābodhi Tree appears to be fourth or fifth generation from the original Mahābodhi Tree.
- 13.
The occasion has been displayed on one of the bas-reliefs at Sāñcī (see Strong 1983: 127 fn 68; Marshall 1955: 54).
- 14.
Talking about the wall, Cunningham further points out: “If this account can be accepted, I would suggest that the double enclosure of Prasenjit must have been only a double palisade of wood, which would have been much decayed during the two centuries and a half which intervened between the two monarchs. I conclude, also, that it would have been altogether removed when Aśoka built his Temple immediately to the east of the Bodhi Tree” (1892: 31).
- 15.
Identified by Cunningham with Mihirkula, King of the Hūṇas (1892: 31 fn2).
- 16.
Referring to the twenty-four feet high stone enclosure mentioned by Xuanzang, J.D. Beglar, and Alexander Cunningham had suggested that the surrounding of the tree with this high wall refers to the placing of the new Tree on the terrace of the Temple, which is rather more than thirty feet above the original ground level (Cunningham 1892: 30).
- 17.
In the view of Cunningham, the Mahābodhi did not come to any harm at the hands of the Turuṣka (Turk) invaders. He has pointed out that “it was safe until the time of the Muhammadan invasion under Bakhtiyār Khalji in A.D. 1201. As the Moslems spared the famous Tree at Peshāwar, it is probable that the Mahābodhi Tree was then left untouched” (Cunningham 1892: 31).
- 18.
Dutugamunu, Tuṭṭakāmiṇi, popularly known Duṭṭhagāmani Abhaya who reigned from 161 BCE to 137 BC.
- 19.
The expert team from the Forest Research Institute, Dehadun (India) engaged by the Mahābodhi Temple Management Committee has suggested that the over-enthusiastic devotees and lighting arrangements made around the Mahābodhi Tree have significantly reduced its life period. https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/9kgdxz/the-bodhi-tree-the-buddha-sat-under-is-dead. Accessed 15 March 2018.
- 20.
Interestingly, the new sapling of the Mahābodhi Tree was also planted by Cunningham some thirty feet lower than the spot where older Mahābodhi Tree stood. According to him, “in 1880, when I saw the Vajrāsan Throne uncovered outside the backwall of the Temple, it struck me that possibly some trace of the old Bodhi Tree might still be found where the original Tree must have stood. I, therefore, had the ground dug up at a short distance to the west of the Vajrāsan Throne. In the sandy soil, just outside the granite facing of the Throne, 3 feet below the level of the foot of the Throne, and 30 feet below the terrace level where the modern Tree had stood, I found two large pieces of an Old Pipal Tree, on 61/2 inches in length, and the other 4 inches. As the whole mass of the great buttress at the back of the Temple, 32 feet long and 30 feet high by14 feet thick, had been standing over this spot for more than 12 centuries, it seems not improbable that these two fragments may be part of the Pipal Tree which was cut down by Śaśāṅka” (Cunningham 1892: 31).
- 21.
Another practice that appears to have caused significant damage to the root and the stem of the Mahābodhi Tree was the practice of the devotees of making offers of ghee, milk, scented water, etc. For instance, during one of his visits, Alexander Cunningham witnessed the roots of the tree being washed with “scented water and perfumed milk” (Cunningham 1892: 30). The Dharmasvāmin in 1234 CE also saw that “The devotees worship (the Bodhi-tree) with curds, milk and perfumes, such as sandal wood, camphor, etc. They bring the offerings from afar in vessels, and pour them out into (the trench). Thus they worship the Bodhi-tree and keep it constantly moist” (Roerich 1959: 67).
- 22.
In an interview to Vice.com, on 4 May 2018, N.S.K. Harsh, the leader of the FRI Team and advisor to the Mahabodhi Temple Management Committee on the Mahābodhi Tree restoration pointed out: “There is white marble flooring underneath the tree, which gets hot during summers. The wall of the Mahabodhi Temple, grey in colour, also emits heat. This excess heat causes premature defoliation at times” (Khan 2018).
- 23.
According to N.S.K. Harsh, now “the marble floor is mopped twice a day, around 11 AM and 4 PM. We also stopped the devotees from offering milk to the tree. We encased the metallic props beneath the branches with rubber and foam bedding, so that the branches are not damaged. The foliage was regularly removed and manure added. We were regularly finding ways to save the tree from diseases like mealybug. Any injuries to the stem or branches were treated with a special paste. The tree was also suffering from a scarcity of major nutrients like nitrogen, copper, and potash. To counter that, we applied micronutrients to the old roots once or twice a year, depending upon the requirement” (Khan 2018).
- 24.
According to N.S.K. Harsh, “this tree may survive another 50 years. Its descendant has already started to appear and it will take over when the time comes” (Khan 2018).
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Sarao, K.T.S. (2020). The Mahābodhi Tree. In: The History of Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8067-3_4
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