The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s3: § 3. Spirits of the Forest, the Trees, and the Plants

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s3

Language: English

§ 3. Spirits of the Forest, the Trees, and the Plants

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The references to the worship of the tree and the plants are very scanty in the Vedic ritual and mythology alike, but they are quite adequate to show that as among all other peoples these objects were not without their share of reverence.⁴ A long hymn in the last book of the Rigveda⁵ is devoted to the deification of the plants with special reference to their healing properties, and plants also appear in the Atharvaveda,⁶ where they are used in spells for healing, and for driving away demons of all kinds : the plant is even besought to bestow a horse, a sheep, a garment, and the life of the patient, who doubtless was to be the instrument by which the prayer of the medicine man was to be made good if the spell succeeded in attaining its purpose. In the Rigveda⁷ Soma is already the king of the plants, and they are called mothers and goddesses : the Atharvaveda⁸ poetically describes a plant as a goddess born of the goddess earth. On the other hand plants have power to hinder child-birth, and in that case the offering of an animal victim to them is prescribed by the Taittirīya Saṁhitā⁹ in order to procure their favour.

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⁴ Meyer (*Gesch. des Alt.*³ I. ii. p. 915) lays stress on the fact that Aryan religion pictures the deities as only faintly localized, and so, unlike other faiths, could not develop any strong belief in tree worship. This may be explained by migrations.

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⁵ x. 97; Roth, ZDMG. xxv. 645–8.

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⁶ Bloomfield, *Atharvaveda*, p. 67.

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⁷ x. 97. 18.

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⁸ vi. 136. 1.

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⁹ ii. 1. 5. 3.

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The cult of trees, and above all of forest trees, Vanaspati, is recognized by the Rigveda,¹⁰ which in a few passages invokes either one or many along with the Waters and the Mountains. In the later Saṁhitās, as we have seen, trees are the favourite homes of the Apsarases and also of the Gandharvas. The Taittirīya Saṁhitā¹¹ assigns to them as their homes the trees Açvattha, Nyagrodha, Udumbara, and Plakṣa. When the wedding procession passes by large trees, these deities are to be besought to afford their favour. More directly, in the same ceremony, in some accounts the tree is solemnly honoured on the fifth day after marriage with gifts of flowers, of food and clothing, and the part of trees in the marriage ritual is one of the commonest features of Indian marriage among the less advanced tribes.¹² There is, however, no trace in the Vedic literature of the marriage to a tree, which in modern India often precedes certain classes of marriages. Again, if a man is driving out on a new car, and he comes across a good tree, he should go round it from left to right, the way of the sun, and take from it branches with fruit.¹

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¹⁰ vii. 34. 23; x. 64. 8.

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¹¹ TS. iii. 4. 8. 4.

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¹² Winternitz, *Altind. Hochzeitsrituell*, pp. 101, 102; BhGS. i. 13. Viçvāvasu can hardly be a relic of tree marriage.

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¹ AGS. ii. 6. 9.

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The belief in the life of the tree is very clearly seen in the treatment of the tree from which the sacrificial post is to be taken.² The necessary cutting is performed after a blade of grass has been put over the place where the blow is to be inflicted, and the blade is hidden to protect the tree, while the axe is expressly ordered to harm not the tree: the prescription is precisely the same as that adopted in the domestic ritual when the hair is cut, and in the ordinary cult when the victim is slain: the aim is clearly to avoid injury to the life in the tree by pretending that it is not being injured. The tree is also, when made into the form of a post, adorned with a band placed round it and is anointed, and this doubtless proves its living character, while it is possible that the verse in the Āprī litany of the animal sacrifice, addressed to the forest tree, is really an adjuration to the sacrificial post. The evidence must not be unduly pressed, as in this case, owing to the presence of the god at the place of sacrifice, it is beyond doubt that the surroundings of the sacrifice are filled with his presence, and that, therefore, they may attain a sanctity not their own; but the conception of the life of the tree is clear, even if its divinity is not so certain in this special instance.

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² The ritual seems implied in RV. iii. 8.

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The belief in the presence of spirits in trees is, of course, ethnic and the Buddhist literature has many traces of it, showing the different sets of conceptions which are easily formed; the tree is primarily the spirit, then the spirit with or without its children lives in the tree, and, if it perishes, has to go away to seek a new abode, while at a further stage the tree becomes more and more remotely connected with the deity. This literature is also instructive in the fact that it mentions other than tree spirits, spirits of terrible form and uncanny and hostile nature, who may well be of double origin, arising from a direct or animatistic conception of the darkness and hostility of the woods,³ and also from the conception of unfriendly spirits which develops from the belief in the hostile spirits of the dead.⁴ The Rigveda⁵ preserves one hymn in its last book, describing the forest goddess, Araṇyānī, in a poetical and graphic manner which brings out clearly the uncanny sounds heard in the solitudes, the many beasts which abound, and the food which is raised without tillage. It is easy from this hymn alone to realize how spirits of dangerous character could, independently of any connexion with spirits of the dead, be deemed to abound in the forest.

Linked texts (5)

Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Taittirīyasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Baudhāyanagṛhyasūtra — Baudhāyana, Sanskrit
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
Āśvalāyanagṛhyasūtra — Āśvalāyana, Sanskrit