But the grand achievement which consummated the establishment of the national faith, was the arrival from Magadha of a branch of the sacred Bo-tree.  Every ancient race has had its sacred tree; the Chaldeans, the Hebrews[1], the Greeks, the Romans and the Druids, had each their groves, their elms and their oaks, under which to worship.  Like them, the Brahmans have their Kalpa tree in Paradise, and the Banyan in the vicinity of their temples; and the Buddhists, in conformity with immemorial practice, selected as their sacred tree the Pippul, which is closely allied to the Banyan, yet sufficiently distinguished from it, to serve as the emblem of a new and peculiar worship.[2] It was whilst reclining under the shade of this tree in Uruwela, that Gotama received Buddhahood; hence its adoption as an object of reverence by his followers, and in all probability its adoration preceded the use of images and temples in Ceylon.[3]

[Footnote 1:  “They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good.”—­Hosea, iv. 13.]

[Footnote 2:  The Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) is the “pippul” of India.  It differs from the Banyan (F. indica), by sending down no roots from its branches.  Its heart-shaped leaves, with long attenuated points, are attached to the stem by so slender a stalk, that they appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, and thus, like the leaves of the aspen, which, from the tradition that the cross was made of that wood, the Syrians believe to tremble in recollection of the events of the crucifixion, those of the Bo-tree are supposed by the Buddhists to exhibit a tremulous veneration, associated with the sacred scene of which they were the witnesses.]

[Footnote 3:  Previous Buddhas had each his Bo-tree or Buddha-tree.  The pippul had been before assumed by the first recorded Buddha; others had the iron-tree, the champac, the nipa, &c.—­Mahawanso, TURNOUR’S Introd. p. xxxii.]

[Sidenote:  B.C. 289.]

In order that his kingdom might possess a sacred tree of the supremest sanctity, king Tissa solicited a branch of the identical tree under which Gotama reclined, from Asoca, who then reigned in Magadha.  The difficulty of severing a portion without the sacrilegious offence of “lopping it with any weapon,” was overcome by the miracle of the branch detaching itself spontaneously, and descending with its roots into the fragrant earth prepared for it in a golden vase, in which it was transported by sea to Ceylon[1], and planted by king Tissa in the spot at Anarajapoora, where, after the lapse of more than 2000 years, it still continues to flourish and to receive the profound veneration of all Buddhist nations.[2]