The generic name given to the tree under which a Buddha
attains Enlightenment (D.A.ii.416). The tree is different in the case of each
Buddha. Thus,
- for Gotama and also for Kondañña it was an asvattha;
- for Dīpankara a sirīsa;
- for Mangala, Sumana, Revata and Sobhita a nāga;
- for Anomadassī an ajjuna;
- for Paduma and Nārada a mahāsona;
- for Padumuttara a salala;
- for Sumedha a nimba;
- for Sujāta a bamboo;
- for Piyadassī a kakudha;
- for Atthadassī a campaka;
- for Dhammadassī a bimbajāla;
- for Siddhattha a kanikāra;
- for Tissa an asana;
- for Phussa an Āmanda;
- for Vipassī a pātalī;
- for Sikhī a pundarīka;
- for Vessabhū a sāla;
- for Kakusandha a sirīsa;
- for Konāgamma an udumbara;
- for Kassapa a banyan (see passim; the details differ
some what at BuA.247).
The site of the Bodhi tree is the same for all Buddhas
(BuA.247), and it forms the navel of the earth (J.iv.233) (puthuvinābhi). No
other place can support the weight of the Buddha's attainment. J. iv.229.

Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya, India.
When no Bodhi tree grows, the Bodhimanda (ground round the
Bodhi-tree), for a distance
of one royal karīsa, is devoid of all plants, even of any blade of grass, and is
quite smooth, spread with sand like a silver plate, while all around it are
grass, creepers and trees. None can travel in the air immediately above it, not
even Sakka (J.iv.232f).

When the world is destroyed at the end of a kappa, the
Bodhimanda is the last spot to disappear; when the world emerges into existence
again, it is the first to appear. A lotus springs there bringing it into view
and if during the kappa thus begun a Buddha will be born, the lotus puts forth
flowers, according to the number of Buddhas (DA.ii.412).
In the case of Gotama Buddha, his Bodhi tree sprang up on
the day he was born (DA.ii.425; BuA.248). After his Enlightenment, he spent a
whole week in front of it, standing with unblinking eyes, gazing at it with
gratitude. A shrine was later erected on the spot where he so stood, and was
called the Animisalocana cetiya (q.v.). The spot was used as a shrine even in
the lifetime of the Buddha, the only shrine that could be so used. While the
Buddha was yet alive, in order that people might make their offerings in the
name of the Buddha when he was away on pilgrimage, he sanctioned the planting of
a seed from the Bodhi tree in Gayā in front of the gateway of Jetavana. For this
purpose Moggallāna took a fruit from a tree at Gayā as it dropped from its
stalk, before it reached the ground. It was planted in a golden jar by
Anāthapindika with great pomp and ceremony. A sapling immediately sprouted
forth, fifty cubits high, and in order to consecrate it the Buddha spent one
night under it, wrapt in meditation. This tree, because it was planted under the
direction of Ananda, came to be known as the Ananda Bodhi (J.iv.228ff).


The Ānanda
Bodhi tree at
Jetavana grove, Sravasti (Sāvatthi)
today 2500 years later!
See also Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDbtzkSI4bA
According to the Ceylon Chronicles (e.g., Mhv.xv),
branches from the Bodhi trees of all the Buddhas born during this kappa were
planted in Ceylon on the spot where the sacred Bodhi tree stands today in
Anurādhapura. The branch of Kakusandha's tree was brought by a nun called
Rucānandā, Konagamana's by Kantakānandā (or Kanakadattā), and Kassapa's by
Sudhammā. Asoka was most diligent in paying homage to the Bodhi tree, and held a
festival every year in its honour in the month of Kattika (Mhv.Xvii.17). His
queen, Tissarakkhā was jealous of the Tree, and three years after she became
queen (i.e., in the nineteenth year of Asoka's reign), she caused the tree to be
killed by means of mandu thorns (Mhv.Xx.4f). The tree, however, grew again, and
a great monastery was attached to the Bodhimanda. Among those present at the
foundation of the Mahā Thūpa are mentioned thirty thousand monks, from this
Vihāra, led by Cittagutta (Mhv.Xxix.41).
Kittisirimegha of Ceylon, contemporary of Samudragupta,
erected with the permission of Samudragupta, a Sanghārāma near the Mahābodhi-vihāra,
chiefly for the use of the Singhalese monks who went to worship the Bodhi tree.
The circumstances in connection with the Sanghārāma are given by Hiouen Thsang
(Beal., op. cit., 133ff) who gives a description of it as seen by himself. It was
probably here that Buddhaghosa met the Elder Revata who persuaded him to come to
Ceylon.
In the twelfth year of Asoka's reign the right branch of
the Bodhi tree was brought by Sanghamittā to Anurādhapura and placed by
Devānāmpiyatissa in the Mahāmeghavana. The Buddha, on his death bed, had
resolved five things, one being that the branch which should be taken to Ceylon
should detach itself (Mhv.Xvii.46f). From Gayā, the branch was taken to
Pātaliputta, thence to Tāmalittī, where it was placed in a ship and taken to
Jambukola, across the sea; finally it arrived at Anurādhapura, staying on the
way at Tivakka. Those who assisted the king at the ceremony of the planting of
the Tree were the nobles of Kājaragāma and of Candanagāma and of Tivakka. From
the seeds of a fruit which grew on the tree sprang eight saplings, which were
planted respectively

Sri Mahabodhi Tree at Anuradhapura Sri Lanka!
A sapling of the original Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya India,
brought & planted 3rd century BC by
Sanghamittā


- at Jambukola,
- in the village of Tivakka,
- at Thūpārāmā,
- at Issaramanārāma,
- in the court of the Pathamacetiya,
- in Cetiyagiri,
- in Kājaragāma and
- in Candanagāma (Mhv.Xix.60ff.; for details in
connection with the bringing of the Bodhitree, see Mbv.144 ff).
Thirty-two other saplings, from four other fruits, were
planted here and there at a distance of one yojana. Ceremonies were instituted
in honour of the Tree, the supervision of which was given over to Bodhāhārakula,
at the head of which were the eight ministers of Asoka who, led by Bodhigutta
and Sumitta (see Mbv.165f., for the names of the others), were sent as escorts
of the Tree. Revenues were provided for these celebrations.
Later, King Dhātusena built a Bodhighara or roof over the
Tree (Cv.xxxviii.431) while Silākāla made daily offerings at the shrine (see
Cv.Trs.i.32, n. 6; Cv.xli.29), and Kittisirimegha had the Bodhighara covered
with tin plates (Cv.xli.65). Mahānāga had the roof of the Bodhighara gilded,
built a trench round the courtyard and set up Buddha images in the image house
(Cv.xli.94). Aggabodhi I. erected a stone terrace round the Tree and placed, at
the bottom of it, an oil pit to receive the oil for illuminations on festival
days (Cv.xlii.19). Aggabodhi II. had a well dug for the use of pilgrims
(Cv.xlii.66), and Moggallāna III. held a great celebration in the Tree's honour
(Cv.xliv.45).
Aggabodhi VII found the Bodhighara in ruins and had it
rebuilt (Cv.xlviii.70); Mahinda II instituted a regular offering in its honour
(Cv.xlviii.124), and Udaya III gave a village near Anurādhapura to the service
of the Bodhi tree. Cv.liii.10.
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_tree
and Homage to the Bodhi Tree in Buddhist practice:
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2003/03/16/fea07.html

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