A History of Agriculture in India v1.c33.s8: Small Population and Vast Land Resources
A History of Agriculture in India v1.c33.s8
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Small Population and Vast Land Resources
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Under the patronage of the Kushan rulers, a school of sculpture developed at Mathura whose favourite theme is depiction of *Yakshis*. The *Yakshis* or *vrikshakas* are auspicious emblems of vegetative fertility. The famous *salabhanjika* pose in which a woman is shown plucking flowers of a *sal* tree derives from the nativity legend of the Buddha in the Lumbini Garden, where Mayadevi, supported by the *sal*-tree, stretching her arm to catch the flowers, delivers the holy child. This seems to have provided the basis for the woman and tree motifs which are so frequently seen in the Buddhist sculptures of Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati and Mathura. From its association with the birth of the Buddha, the *vrikshaka* motif became a symbol of fertility and women prayed to it for gifts of children. *The Mahabharata* also speaks of dryads (*Vrikshaka* and *Vrikshi*) as "goddesses born in trees, to be worshipped by those desiring children".⁶ In the ancient city of Sravasti, Salabhanjika festival was celebrated with great zeal when the *sal*-trees flowered. The *sal*-trees in full blossom were worshipped for offspring.
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⁶ Coomaraswamy, A. *History of Indian and Indonesian Art*, p. 64
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'Girls and young women are regarded as human embodiments of the maternal energy of nature', observes Zimmer. They are diminutive doubles of the great Mother of all life, vessels of fertility, life in full sap, potential sources of new offspring. By touching and kicking the tree they transfer into it their potency, and enable it to bring forth blossom and fruit. Hence, the goddess who represents the life energy and fertility of the tree is herself most aptly visualized in this magic posture of fertilization.⁷
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⁷ Zimmer, H. *Myth and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization*, p. 69
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During the Kushan age, the population of India was comparatively small and there were vast areas covered with forests which could be reclaimed. Hence more people were required. This explains the popularity of *Yakshi* cult and its necessity.
v1.c33.s8.6
The woman and the tree motif found its most elegant expression in red sandstone Mathura sculptures of the Kushan period. The leaves and flowers of *asoka* (*Saraca asoca*) (*S. indica*), were the most popular motif with the Mathura sculptors. We find numerous sculptures in the Mathura and Lucknow museums where the *asoka* is shown associated with female figures. These are not dancing-girls, but *vriksha devatas*, symbols of fertility, who were worshipped for gifts of children by childless women. On a railing pillar we see a woman standing under a flowering *asoka*-tree. A beautiful woman, with a happy face standing cross-legged on a crouching dwarf, fastens a lotus garland on her head. Behind her we see an exquisitely carved branch of *asoka*. In another Mathura sculpture, we see a couple feeding a parrot, and below the window are the leaves and flowers of *asoka*, which are so true to nature (Fig. 184).
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Apart from *asoka*, we find four other trees depicted in these sculptures. In one of these we see a woman under a *kadamba* tree (*Anthocephalus chinensis*) (*A. indicus*), holding a sword touching its ball-like flowers. The broad ovate leaves, with conspicuously marked venation and globose inflorescence, are prominent characters of the *kadamba*, and they have been faithfully carved by the sculptor.
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Their third unidentified tree which we find appears to be *champak* (*Michelia champaca*) and forms a background to a beautiful female figure wearing a peculiar head-dress.
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The fourth tree, with leaves like those of *asoka* and comparatively small axillary flowers, which we find in the sculpture behind the woman treading over the dwarf, resembles *Mesua ferrea*, the well-known Nagsura of Bengal and Assam. Its linear-lanceolate, acuminate, drooping opposite leaves, with short peduncles and axillary solitary flowers, resemble those of *Mesua ferrea*, rather than of any other Indian tree. *Mesua ferrea*, with its strikingly beautiful leaves and highly fragrant flowers, must have been as popular in ancient India as it is now in Bengal and Assam.
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The fifth tree in Kushan sculpture is possibly *Ixora arborea* (*I. parviflora*). We find it sculptured behind a woman carrying a basket.
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All these trees grow in humid tropical areas of India. Their presence at Mathura indicates that in the Kushan period this region had a higher rainfall.
Linked texts (1)
- Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit