A History of Agriculture in India v1.c32.6

v1.c32.6

Asoka actively promoted arboriculture and horticulture. This was partly due to reasons of religion. The worship of the bodhi-tree was specially enjoined by Sakya Muni himself, who directed Ananda to obtain a branch of the tree under which he had obtained Buddhahood, and to plant it in the court of the Vihara at Sravasti, adding, ‘He who worships it will receive the same reward as if he worshipped me in person.’ Such being the recorded origin of the reverence paid to the pipal-tree of the last Buddha Sakya Sinha, it is not surprising that tree worship was generally popular. In the Divya Avadana it is related that the Bodhi-tree was the favourite object of Asoka's worship.