Banyan: a grove tree and a symbol of India

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Nature has struck and will continue to strike humanity with its creations. Among the plant wonders, one of the most amazing is the banyan tree (photo below), which is visually perceived as a whole forest.

Banyan species

This huge plant belongs to ficuses and is a distant relative of the most common indoor flower. There are two varieties:

• Bengal banyan: an epiphytic tree that attaches itself to another plant at the beginning of its development. Seeds are transferred to the carrier tree with the help of birds. The sprout produces a huge amount of aerial roots. The vast majority of them dry up, not growing to the ground. However, those who managed to get to it become the next trunks. At the same time, the crown also expands. It is this species that is most often meant by the name banyan.
• The tree of the second species is called Ficus religiosa. This plant is not an epiphyte. It also grows aerial roots that rest on the ground and support a huge crown. This banyan tree is also grown by lovers of indoor gardening. At home, its height does not exceed a meter or two. From such a "ficus" you get just a wonderful bonsai.

Both species are widespread in India and are notable, in addition to their original appearance, for the production (with the help of worms) of shellac, a very valuable resin. In addition to India, isolated banyan trees grow in Indonesia and China.

Why is it called that

The well-known name "banyan" tree received from the British and the Portuguese. The newcomers noted the love of Indian merchants - banias - to rest under the branches of a huge ficus and called it the tree of merchants (in English banias tree). Over time, the tree was lost, and only the "banyan" remained. Now this name is known to a lot more people than the official "Bengal ficus".

The sacred meaning of the plant

The banyan forest tree is revered and respected by both Buddhists and Hindus. The first believe that it was under him that the Buddha gained enlightenment. In Hinduism, it is the tree of Brahma and a symbol of immortality, eternal life and rebirth. Descending to the ground with its roots, it ascends to the sky - and so continuously, in a circle, like the wheel of Samsara. For women, the banyan symbolizes fertility; in ancient writings it is mentioned as the world tree. Some sources call it the tree of knowledge, so it is quite possible that Adam and Eve lived under the same tree before the fall. Once upon a time, wise people came to him for meditation and reflection on the eternal. In addition, the banyan tree is the symbol of India.

Note that in some tourist places in India, attempts have been made to “cultivate” banyan groves. Nearthey put small temples and chapels, benches and paths are equipped under the crowns. However, for the most part, such experiments lead to trouble for the tree itself, since people treat it by no means with care. There are cases when, due to their barbarism, part of the tree-grove perished. The great banyan tree is even patrolled by some kind of environmental police, who protect it from tourists.

The biggest banyan tree

Which tree is considered the champion, Bangalore, Sri Lanka and Calcutta are arguing. On the one hand, the Sri Lankan plant has already grown 350 main, strengthened and thick trunks. And he has more than three thousand small ones. On the other hand, the Great Banyan in Calcutta is 200-250 years old, its crown height in some places reaches 25 meters, and the tree-grove area is almost one and a half hectares. However, in the year 25 of the last century, lightning struck the Great Banyan. Its main trunk was split and had to be cut. So this specimen cannot be considered a single tree since then, it is now recognized as a clonal colony.

In the resort of Goa, the banyan tree has not reached such a stunning size, but there are enough to capture the imagination of tourists. Moreover, it is here, in Arambol, that the legendary banyan tree grows - a tree under which the Beatles allegedly once meditated with the help of hemp. And although the group's experts have refuted this myth several times (in India, the Beatles lived in Rishikesh), tourists from all over the world still stubbornly believe in the legend. So the fans of the band, coming onGoa, they certainly visit the treasured tree - to take pictures, think about the high and mentally merge with their idols.