Studies in Indian Art c9.s3.13

c9.s3.13

Recently, Sivaramamurti drew attention to the *Kalpa-vriksha-Kalpa-valli* motif explaining it in the light of a few literary references from Kālidāsa². The conception of an idyllic land or clime in which all kinds of human enjoyments are available to man as in a garden of paradise, is of old standing in Indian literature. We read in the story of the Mahāvāṇija Jātaka (No. 493) that a group of merchants who had set out in search of a treasure come to a mighty banyan tree with cool and pleasant shade. From its eastward branch pure and clear water trickled for them; they washed and drank their fill. One of the branches on the south gave them all things to eat: