Picture Details
Landscape with a huge banyan tree beside a river
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.Add.Or.2525Origin:
East, IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1825Size:
508 x 609mmDescription:
Click here for more details
An illustration of a banyan tree, the national tree of India, held sacred in the sub-continent and South East Asia. The image of gurus instructing their rapt pupils in philosophical truths, shaded by its vast leafy vaults, is deep-rooted in the Indian consciousness. A focal point in village life by day, providing a theatre for discussion or a cool place for rest and reflection, by night it is imbued with mystique, its numerous stems believed to harbour spirits and serpents. Enshrined in ancient Hindu myth as Kalpavriksha, or 'wish-fulfilling tree', it is described as Bhaupada, or 'many-footed', and its propensity to regenerate through aerial roots and live long give it an aura of immortality. In traditional medicine its bark and leaf buds are used to arrest bleeding and secretions, and its fruit soothe the skin and mucous membranes and bring down swellings and pain. The wood of its subsidiary stems, stronger than the main trunk and moderately hard and durable, was used in the 19th century for tent-poles and palanquin bars, cheap furniture and cart-yokes.
