>Aavindraa at 22:29, 9 May 2021

2021-05-09T22:29:00Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
'''Akshayavat''' or '''Akshay Vat''' ("the indestructible banyan tree") is a [[sacred fig]] tree mentioned in the [[Hindu mythology]].

According to a legend, once the sage [[Markandeya]] asked Lord [[Narayana]] to show him a specimen of the divine power. Narayana flooded the entire world for a moment, during which only the Akshayavat could be seen above the water level.<ref name="WCrooke_Religion">{{cite book
| title = The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India
| author = W. Crooke
| edition = reprint
| publisher = Kessinger
| year = 2004
| isbn = 978-1-4179-4902-1
| page = 98
}}</ref>

[[Jahangir]] cut the Akshayvat to its roots and hammered a red-hot iron cauldron on its stump so that it doesn't grow again. However, within a year, the tree began to grow again.<ref> [https://archive.org/details/shivajihistimes00sarkrich/page/442/mode/2up Page 443, Shivaji and His Times, J.N. Sarkar]</ref>

== Prayagraj ==

A tree in [[Prayagraj]] has been described as Akshayavat in the ''Prayag Mahatmya'' of the ''[[Matsya Purana]]''.<ref name="KM_2008">{{cite book |author=Kama Maclean |title=Pilgrimage and Power: The Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, 1765-1954 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MALacgnsroMC&pg=PA5 |date=28 August 2008 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-533894-2 |pages=70–73 }}</ref>

In ''The Encyclopaedia Asiatica'' (1976), Edward Balfour identifies a banyan tree mentioned in [[Ramayana]] with the tree at Prayag.<ref name="FJSimoons_Life">{{cite book | title = Plants of life, plants of death | author = Frederick J. Simoons | edition = illustrated | publisher = University of Wisconsin Press | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-299-15904-7 | pages = 80–81 }}</ref> [[Rama]], [[Lakshmana]] and [[Sita]] are said to have rested beneath this tree.<ref name="WCrooke_Religion"/> The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim [[Xuanzang]] mentions a tree (a stump with few branches<ref name="FJSimoons_Life"/>) which was said to be the home of a man-eating demon. As part of a custom, some pilgrims would offer themselves at the nearby temple. Xuanzang mentions that the tree was surrounded by human bones. [[Alexander Cunningham]] identified this tree with the Akshayavat at Prayag.<ref name="WCrooke_Religion"/> [[Rishabha (Jain tirthankar)]] is also said to have practised [[tapasya]] beneath the historical Akshayavat at Prayag.

Currently, a sacred fig tree located within the Patalpuri Temple at the [[Allahabad Fort|Prayagraj Fort]] is worshipped as the Akshayavat described in ancient texts. {{As of|2011}}, a permission from the Commandant of Prayagraj Fort's Ordnance Depot is needed to visit this tree. On one day during the [[Allahabad Kumbh Mela|Kumbh Mela]], the site is open to all the pilgrims. However, a popular opinion is that the Patalpuri Temple tree is not the authentic Akshayavat: the real Akshayavat is in another underground temple inside the Fort. When the British gained control of the Prayagraj Fort after the [[Treaty of Allahabad|Treaty of Prayagraj]] in 1765, they did not want general public to access the sensitive parts of the fort. So, the shrine was moved to the fringes of the fort compound, that is, the present-day Patalpuri Temple.<ref name="KM_2008"/> According to the Welsh travel writer [[Fanny Parkes]], who visited both the tree sites in 1831, when the original Akshayavat chamber was closed, the local Brahmins set up the stump of a [[Ziziphus mauritiana|ber tree]] in Patalpuri. They claimed that it was a branch of the original Akshayavat that had penetrated through the walls. Parkes states that the local Hindus of Prayag knew about this and did not worship the false Akshayavat.<ref>{{cite book |author=Fanny Parks Parlby |title=Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque: During Four-and-twenty Years in the East |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFwLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA215 |year=1850 |publisher=Pelham Richardson |pages=215–216 }}</ref> An 18th-century map of the Fort from the [[British Library]] confirms this: the location of the original temple is shown in the center of the fort; while the present-day Patalpuri Temple is on the outskirts of the Fort. In the 1950s, [[Shiva Nath Katju]] also claimed that the "tree" placed in the Patalpuri Temple was only a log that was replaced by the priests every 4–5 years. The commander of the fort acknowledged his claim as true.<ref name="KM_2008"/>

== Other places ==
[[File:Akshay Vat, The Banyan Tree Witness to The Gita, Kurukshetra, India.jpg|thumb|300px|A tree at [[Kurukshetra]], claimed to be the Akshay Vat]]
A tree at [[Gaya, Bihar]]<ref name="FJSimoons_Life"/><ref>''The Sacred Complex in Hindu Gaya'', Concept. Page 9.</ref> and another tree at [[Varanasi]] are also worshipped as the Akshayavat. The [[Bodhi tree]] is said to be a manifestation of the Akashayavat at Prayag.<ref name="himalayan_kumbha">
{{cite web
| url = http://www.kumbhamelatimes.org/pointsarchive.asp?dt=1/12/2001
| title = Akshaya Vata: The Eternal Banyan Tree
| publisher = The Himalayan Institute
| date = 2001-12-01
| access-date = 2011-03-15
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051102044357/http://www.kumbhamelatimes.org/pointsarchive.asp?dt=1%2F12%2F2001
| archive-date = 2 November 2005
| url-status = dead
| df = dmy-all
}}
</ref>

According to Tibetan Buddhist tradition, [[Buddha]] is said to have planted a seed of the Prayag's Akshayavat next to [[Mount Kailash]] on a mountain known as the Palace of the Medicine Buddha.<ref name="himalayan_kumbha"/>

== See also ==

* [[Ashvattha]], mythological world tree
* [[Kalpavriksha]], a mythological, wish-fulfilling divine tree

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Worship in Hinduism}}

[[Category:Sacred trees in Hinduism]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Allahabad]]
[[Category:Hindu mythology]]
[[Category:Trees in mythology]]
[[Category:Individual banyan trees]]

Akshayavat - Revision history

>Aavindraa at 22:29, 9 May 2021