Udumbara (Buddhism)

In Buddhism, uḍumbara (Pali, Sanskrit) refers to the tree, flower and fruit of the Ficus racemosa (syn. Ficus glomerata). In Buddhist literature, this tree or its fruit may carry the connotation of rarity, parasitism or Vedic mysticism.

The udumbara is also used to refer to the flower of the blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea Sav.).

The udumbara tree's unseen flowers, parasitic nature and Vedic magical ascriptions have informed the tree's inclusion in a number of Buddhist texts.

The flowers of the udumbara are enclosed within its fruit, as in all figs (see "Fig pollination and fig fruit"). Because the flower is hidden inside the fruit, a legend developed to explain the absence (and supposed rarity) of the visual flower: in Buddhist mythology, the flower was said to bloom only once every 3,000 years, and thus came to symbolize events of rare occurrence. Allusions to this symbolism can be found in texts such as Theravada Buddhism's Uraga Sutta (Sn 1.1, v. 5) and Mahayana Buddhism's "Lotus Sutra," both described further below.

The udumbara tree is one of several trees known as "strangling figs" due to their often developing as seeds dropped on the branches of a host tree (by animals eating the fig tree's fruit) and, as the branch-borne fig tree grows, it envelops its host tree with its own roots and branches, at times crushing and replacing the host tree. Based on this life cycle, the Mahārukkha Sutta (SN 46.39) likens "sensual pleasures" (kāma) to such fig trees, causing their human hosts to become "bent, twisted, and split" (obhaggavibhaggo vipatito seti).

In Vedic literature, fig trees often represent talismans with the udumbara fig tree having been deemed the "lord of amulets." Thus, in the Pali Canon, when Māra disguises himself as a brahmin in the Sambahula Sutta (SN 4.21), he carries a "staff of udumbara wood" (udumbaradaṇḍa).

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