The ‘Banyan’ tree known as (wata), (ashwattha) or (nyagrodha) in Sanskrit, is the ‘National Tree of India’. This huge and long-living tree is considered to be divine and enjoys a great amount of respect among all the trees.

 

(Paurnimaa, full moon day) occurs on the 15th of every month according to the traditional Hindu calendar. The Paurnimaa of the fourth month i.e., JyeShtha month is celebrated as the day of this Banyan tree and is known as . This year it occurs on the 15th June, 2011 .

The zoological name of this tree is ‘Ficus Benghalensis ’. Its leaves are large, leathery, glossy green and elliptical in shape. Young banyan foliage has a reddish tinge. Older Banyan trees have Aerial Prop Roots that grow into thick woody trunks and the tree can spread out laterally using these roots to cover a wider area. With age, these roots grow so big as to become indistinguishable from the main trunk.

The tree bears ample religious significance in Hinduism. Due to its longetivity and huge size, it is a symbol of long life, maturity, all-pervasiveness and modesty. Moreover, various deities have resorted to the tree while performing penances or divine rites, a few examples of which can be quoted here:

• It is believed that Lord Krishna consumes all the universe during destruction and contracts himself into a child as small as can be accomodated on a Banyan leaf. He then lies on the leaf and keeps floating in the space till he decides to recreate everything.

• In one of the verses of Bagawad-giitaa, the Lord says that among the trees, he is the Banyan.

• Lord Shiva sits beneath this tree along with Rishis at his feet and they all perform penance

• Lord Buddha is believed to have achieved enlightenment while he was meditating beneath the Sacred Banyan. Since then, the tree is refered to as ‘Bodhi tree’
• It is also refered to as ‘kalpawriksha’ the wish fulfilling tree) in Hinduism.

Trees in general, absorb carbon and exhale oxygen which is, in turn, inhaled by humans for sustaining. Due to the gigantic size of the Banyan, it is believed that it gives a lot of oxygen and hence is considered to be a life saviour tree since ancient times.

A mythological legend of Satyawaan and Saawitrii based on this principle is quite well known. It goes so : It had been fortold that Satyawaan would die soon after marriage. Saawitri was sitting beneath the Banyan tree for protecting her husband’s life. The messengers of death could not take away his life and hence Yama the God of death himself had to come to carry Satyawaan away. Saawitrii followed Yama who was carrying her husband’s soul, upto the next world and he kept on granting boons to Saawitrii in order to escape her chase. In the verge of granting boons to her, he granted her a son, which she would not beget without a husband and hence in order to make the boon come true, Lord Yama had to restore Satywaan back to life.
Since then, it is believed that those married women who offer obeisance to the Banyan tree will have long-living husbands.

A person standing on the bank of a river and watching the reflection of a Banyan tree in its waters will see the roots at the top and the branches at its bottom. If he tries to reach this image, he will never be able to do so, because it is only illusion and not the real object. Similarly, the material world, considered to be non-perishable by the ignorant ones, which is but an inverted image of the spiritual being is, indeed, not a true thing. As such, the one, who realizes this fact, is saved from the illusion of materialism and gains true knowledge and is hence considered to be an enlightened soul.