Asvattha in Everyday Life as Related in Puranas

Asvattha the “Peepal” is deified as the manifestation of different gods. It has been also considered as the abode of gods and goddesses among rural, tribal and urban groups of people of India. Trees have played a very great role of significance in human life and the adoration of trees is perhaps one of the ancient forms of worship. Trees and plants are the supreme creation of the vegetable kingdom as man to the animal kingdom. The cutting of the Asvattha tree or the incision of its leaves is considered a great sacrilege. Asvattha is considered as a very sacred tree in the abode of Visnu. The description of Asvattha has been found in almost all the religious epics i.e. the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Upanisads, the Vedas and its importance has been found in the Folk Tradition also. The worship of trees is not confined in Indian subcontinent but also in other parts of the globe. The survey of global study depicts that the tree worship is a very old custom in foreign countries. There are various types of trees in the world. Asvattha is one of the most popular and prominent tree all over the world. Asvattha tree is also known a “Peepal” tree. Asvattha has been considered as the tree of ‘Atman’, the abode of mischievous spirits, for gaining merit, in fertility rite and prosperity, in curing diseases, in averting evils, in various festivals, in art and sculpture and what not and what not. In other words it can be said with great confidence that the topics dealt by the author on Asvattha tree is unending because its spectrum is very broad. This treatise will be a real asset to all the libraries and individual readers.