The Mystical Fig in the Bhagavad Gita and Beyond

The fig has taken on several roles during its various incarnations across the world. From the clever cover for Queen Cleopatra’s deadly snake to being the fruit of the very tree that protected baby twins Romulus and Remus as they embarked on their fates in the founding of Rome, to being the tree that the Hindu deity Vishnu was born under. Originally cultivated in North western Asia, today in the region between Turkey and India, figs have played an important role in ancient history. Archaeologists have found evidence of figs being eaten at the Neolithic village in the Lower Jordan Valley. The dating of the site suggests that figs were being cultivated over 11,000 years ago, possibly making them the first domesticated plant during the Neolithic Revolution.

The prevalence of figs in the Mediterranean is well documented. During the Olympics in Ancient Greece, which started in 776 BCE, athletes consumed dried figs to help enhance their performance, and it is said that the winners were adorned with laurels made of fig leaves. In Rome, figs were called “poor man’s food” because of how much it was consumed. In approximately 700 BCE, along the banks of the Tiber River, the Ficus Ruminalis provided protection for Romulus and Remus, and in Northeast India, around 500 BCE, a man named Siddhartha Gautama sat under a sacred fig tree for forty-nine days and became the Buddha, the enlightened one. That tree came to be known as the Bodhi Tree, or tree of awakening, but it is a sacred fig tree, or ficus religiosa, indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.

In the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu text composed around 400 BCE, Krishna comes to Earth as an avatar of Vishnu, and he uses the fig tree as an important metaphor for explaining the human experience and perspective of life on earth.

“Prakriti, the world of matter, can be likened to the mythical Ashvatta tree, a giant, upside down fig tree with its roots high in God and its branches stuck in the mud below.” (Chapter 15, verse 1, 131).

The upside-down tree is a symbol for the “inverted way that humans perceive life.” The downward facing branches stuck in the earth are symbols for the earthly attachments that bind the human soul to earth. Non-attachment is a key principle within the Bhagavad Gita, and in practicing yoga we eventually hope to empower our capacity to detach by observing. Krishna goes on to explain the importance of severing the branches stuck in the mud of this world with the “ax of nonattachment.” (Chap 15, verses 3-4, 132). This also relates to Maya, or illusion. Maya is what we perceive to be, instead of what actually is. It is as if we wear a lens that keeps us stuck to the material world, and in wearing the lens, we see the fig tree inverted instead of upright.

How can so much wisdom come from a simple fruit tree? Well, it’s not actually a fruit. The fig is technically a flower. Inside of a fig are hundreds of unisexual flowers, and when they bloom the flowers produce small fruits. These small fruits are what we end up consuming. Like other aggregate fruits (raspberries, blackberries), the tiny fruits form from the ovaries within the flower. Out of the ovaries of this flower has come so much wisdom. In tracing the journey and impact of the fig it becomes clear that just like this aggregate fruit, so too can ideas and culture travel and evolve. What is it about the shade of a fig tree? Why is it such an important symbol for birth, rebirth and awakening? I don’t know the answers, but I wanted to provide a short survey of the fig’s travels and its immense impact on religion and culture as we know it today.

Works Cited

Kislev ME, Hartmann A, Bar-Yosef O. Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley. Science. 2006 Jun 2;312(5778):1372-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1125910. PMID: 16741119

Grivetti LE, Applegate EA. From Olympia to Atlanta: a cultural-historical perspective on diet and athletic training. J Nutr. 1997 May;127(5 Suppl):860S-868S. doi: 10.1093/jn/127.5.860S. PMID: 9164253.

Hawley, J. (2001) The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library. Novato, California