Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c14.16

c14.16

There is thus a double strand in ‘tree-worship’—a desire to avert revenge by due propitiation; and a shrinking from the infliction of injury. In its extremest form, and when the tree-dēva is conceived to be malignant, the first feeling has led even to human sacrifices offered to trees, and this, as it is clear from the literature,† must have been a custom at some long past stage of social development; the other feeling finds expression in the gentle consideration and beautiful ceremonial of the Māyāmataya, verses 20—27, and in the universal Hindu love of trees and forests.