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Sacred Trees of Tamil Nadu

Book · May 2005

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Amirthalingam Murugesan
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© 2005 C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre, Chennai
All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission from

C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre

The C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation
1, Eldams Road, Alwarpet, Chennai - 600 018.
Phone: 91 44 24346526 / 24337023
Fax: 91 44 24320756
Email: cpreec@vsnl.com
Websites: www.cpreec.org www.ecoheritage.cpreec.org

ISBN 81-86901-03-5

Price: Rs. 250/-

This book has been printed on tree-free paper

 SACRED TREES
OF
TAMILNADU

by
M. Amirthalingam

published by
C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre
Chennai
FOREWORD

Sacred trees or sthalavrikshas, along with sacred groves and tanks,

form a part of the ecological heritage of Tamilnadu, as of other
parts of India. Every temple or temple town is associated with a
tree, its sthalavriksha. Some plants are sacred to the individual deity,
others are sacred to the place. Sometimes the tree is an integral or
even larger part of the sanctity of the shrine; occasionally, towns
and cities are even named after their sthalavriksha.
The worship of the tree goes back to the seals of the Harappan
civilization and the hymns of the Vedas. That it continues in India
today is a part of India’s continuing traditions which sanctify nature
and all her manifestations. Over the years, the sacred trees have
collected aspects of Vedic, Buddhist, Jain, popular and animistic
traditions in their character and worship.
The choice of the trees which were sanctified reveals the socio-
economic concerns of ancient peoples. Some trees were sanctified
for their economic role in ship-building or in the timber industry,
some for their produce, some for providing homes for various
animals and birds, and others for their medicinal and air-purifying
qualities. They reveal the people’s knowledge of their environment
and its protection.
This book is a part of C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre’s
efforts to document the ecological heritage of India. The first two
books in this series were “The Ecological Traditions of Tamilnadu”
(a collection of seminar papers) and “Sacred Groves of Tamilnadu
– A Survey”, the latter by the same author as this book. This
book involves two/three years of extensive travel and study to
every temple and tree documented in the book and contains a
wealth of information collected from temples, oral traditions and
6 Sacred Trees of Tamilnadu

textual references. It is probably the first standard and extensive

work of its kind.
The purpose of this documentation is to ensure that an ancient
ecological tradition and respect for the natural heritage is not lost
in today’s fast-changing life styles. It is the duty of every citizen
to protect it. What our ancestors preserved through millennia is
being destroyed and lost within a short period in this century.
We hope that this effort will inspire more Indians, particularly
young people, to understand and respect the wisdom of the past
and preserve it for future generations.
Dr. Nanditha C. Krishna
Honorary Director
C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre
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