22/12/2025
Continuing my series: Plants of Delhi — from Mughal pages to nowadays art.
Day 2: The Banyan tree, in mythology the Tree of Life/Immortality
A piece of history
In Indian painting and visual culture, the banyan is not just a tree — it is a world.
Miniatures and older illustrations show it as a place of gathering:
roots descending from branches, creating shade, shelter, and continuity.
The banyan stands for time, wisdom, and collective life — a tree that is never just one.
The real tree
In Delhi today, banyan trees still dominate space.
Their aerial roots touch the ground and become trunks themselves.
They grow outward, not upward — expanding patiently, claiming time rather than speed.
Under them: people rest, talk, wait, pass.
A modern artwork
Contemporary artist Subodh Gupta reimagines the banyan as a sculptural monument.
In his large-scale works, the tree becomes a symbol of accumulation, memory, and shared history — built from everyday materials, familiar yet transformed.
The banyan shifts from natural organism to cultural archive.