The Woman and Tree Motif

Summary

Gustav Roth’s monographic study investigates the “woman and tree” motif known as salabhanjikā or dalamalikā—depicting a woman under a flowering tree bending down its branch—and traces its origin, terminology and evolution in Prakrit and Sanskrit sources. Beginning with sculptural examples from the Bharhut and Sanchi railings of the first century B.C., the author observes that the motif shows a woman with a pronounced curve of the right hip who raises one arm to bend a branch, often creating a garland. Textual evidence from early Jain canonical literature reveals that salabhanjikā originally denoted a girls’ game in which young women plucked flowers by bending the branches of a sala tree. Roth marshals passages from Pāṇini’s grammar and commentaries like the Kāśikā and Udāttakakaupabhāninjika, as well as Ardhamāgadhī texts such as the Āvaśyaka, Jñātadharmakathā and Rāyapaseṇiya, to show that the term appears alongside other games and not as a sculptural term. Later Sanskrit works—including the Nāṭyaśāstra, Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā, Buddhist texts and Śilpaśāstras—adapted the motif into architectural ornamentation on gateways (toranas), pillars and facades, associating it with various trees like the aśoka and mango and imbuing it with auspicious and fertility symbolism. The author distinguishes the salabhanjikā from the dohada motif, in which a woman expresses a pregnancy craving by kicking or striking a tree to make it bloom; he argues that while later writers occasionally conflated the two, Jain sources maintained a clear distinction. Roth further examines synonymous terms such as madamalikā and dalamalikā, which emphasise the act of garland‑making, and surveys dozens of passages across Jain, Buddhist and Hindu literature to illustrate the motif’s semantic range. Detailed descriptions of plates and figures from Bharhut, Allahabad, Nepal and Rajasthan highlight regional variations in pose, attire and iconography. Photographs accompanying the article depict the characteristic branch‑bending posture, the supporting male figures, and decorative reliefs. The study concludes that the salabhanjikā motif evolved from an innocuous floral game into a widespread decorative symbol signifying feminine grace, fertility and auspiciousness. By clarifying the term’s philological background and separating it from dohada, the article offers a clearer understanding of how the woman‑and‑tree motif functioned in Indian art and literature across centuries.