Importance of the Banyan Treeबरगद के पेड़ का महत्व

The banyan tree stands at the centre of the Vat Savitri Vrat. Women gather around it, offer water at its roots, wind raw cotton thread around its trunk and listen to the story of Savitri in its shade. To understand why this tree was chosen, it helps to look at both sides of it: the living tree that botanists describe, and the sacred tree that Indian tradition has honoured for centuries.

The banyan as a tree

The Indian banyan is known to botanists as Ficus benghalensis. It belongs to the fig family, the same family as the peepal and the cluster fig, and is native to the Indian subcontinent. In Hindi it is called bargad or vat, and in Sanskrit vata or nyagrodha. The English name is usually traced to the banias, the traders who were often seen resting and doing business in its shade.

What makes the banyan unusual is the way it grows. Its branches send down aerial roots that hang in the air at first. When they reach the soil they thicken into pillars that look like extra trunks and help carry the weight of the spreading crown. Over many years one banyan can widen into what looks like a small forest of its own, and parts of it can carry on even if the original trunk is lost. A well known example is the Great Banyan in the botanical garden at Howrah near Kolkata, which has spread so widely that it is visited as a landmark.

A banyan often begins life in an unusual way too. Birds and bats eat its small figs and drop the seeds on walls, buildings or other trees, where they sprout and send roots down to the ground. Its broad, leathery leaves and dense crown give some of the deepest shade of any Indian tree.

National tree of India

The banyan is the national tree of India. It was chosen for the qualities people have always seen in it: a long life, a vast spread that shelters many, and roots that keep reaching down to hold the whole together. In many villages the banyan is still the meeting place where elders sit, disputes are talked over and travellers rest.

A symbol of long life

Because a banyan can live for a very long time and keeps renewing itself through new roots and trunks, it has become a natural symbol of longevity, continuity and an unbroken family line. This is exactly the hope that married women carry to the tree on Vat Savitri: a long life for the husband and a family that grows while staying rooted. The tree is also a reminder of Savitri herself, who, according to tradition, sat beneath a banyan with Satyavan's head in her lap when Yama came, and won his life back there. You can read the full story of Savitri and Satyavan on this site.

The Trimurti in the banyan

A popular belief holds that the three great gods live in the banyan: Brahma in the roots, Vishnu in the trunk and Shiva in the upper branches. Devotees therefore feel that worshipping the banyan honours all three at once, and the goddess Savitri is said to dwell in the tree as well. Several other stories add to the tree's holiness. In one, the sage Markandeya, during the great flood at the end of an age, sees the infant Vishnu resting on a banyan leaf. In another, Shiva as Dakshinamurti, the silent teacher, is shown seated beneath a banyan, teaching sages. Because of these associations the banyan is rarely cut and is often planted near temples. Some prayers recited at the tree are given on the Vat Savitri mantra page.

Akshayavat: the undying banyan

The word akshayavat means "the banyan that does not decay". The most famous tree of this name stands at Prayagraj, near the meeting of the Ganga and Yamuna, within the old fort. Pilgrims have long revered it as an ancient, imperishable tree linked with the holy confluence, and it is mentioned in old accounts of the city. Other sacred banyans known as Akshayavat are honoured elsewhere, including at Gaya, where they are associated with rites for ancestors. For devotees the idea of an undying banyan sums up everything the tree stands for: life that continues beyond the span of one person.

The banyan and the natural world

The banyan is also a vital tree for wildlife. Its figs ripen at different times and feed a wide range of birds, bats, monkeys and squirrels, which is why ecologists count fig trees among the most important food sources in tropical forests. Its figs are pollinated by tiny wasps that live inside them, a partnership in which tree and insect depend on each other. The dense canopy shelters nesting birds and cools the ground beneath, and the roots help hold soil in place.

This gives the worship of the banyan a practical meaning as well. A community that honours its banyan protects it from being cut, and a vrat that sends women to the tree every year keeps that care alive.

Caring for the tree during the puja

• Offer clean water at the roots rather than pouring milk or oil in large amounts.
• Wind thread gently and avoid tying anything so tightly that it cuts into bark or young roots.
• Do not break off branches or pull at aerial roots; if there is no tree near you, plant a sapling or worship a picture at home.
• Take plastic and leftover offerings home after the puja so the area stays clean.

For the full order of worship see the Vat Savitri puja vidhi, and for the thread and the rounds see parikrama and raksha sutra.