Author - Madhav Gadgil & V.D.Vartak
Source - Economic Botany, April-June 1976 Vol. 30 No.2 page no 152-160.
Published by - Springer on behalf of New York Botanical Garden Press.
- Sacred Groves ? preservation of sizeable patches of forests having all forms of vegetation including shrubs and climbers, under the protection of the reigning deity of that grove.
- Sacred groves occur in many parts of India, Asia and Africa. They exist in Ghana, Nigeria, Syria and Turkey.?
- In India - Sacred Groves - Khasi Hills in Assam in the northeast, Aravali ranges of Rajasthan in the northwest, All along the Western Ghats in the southern peninsula and Madhya Pradesh in Central India.?
- A map of Indian Subcontinent, with the hatched areas indicating regions from which sacred groves have been reported.?
- 24 sacred and inam groves listed in a table with village, deity, image, nature, shelter, offering, area in hectares, distance from village in km, topographic location, ownership, preservation . From the Panshet Dam Catchment Area ( Velhe & Mulshi Talukas, Poona District, Maharashtra State.)?
- Most of the Cults around which the sacred groves exist are mother goddess cults.?
- Images of the deities - in the form of tandalas or stones of the shape of rise grain, from 20 to 50 cm along the long axis exist in the open.?
- Deities generally demands - animal sacrifices.?
- The cult spots are rarely within a village, but lie at a distance of at least 0.3 kms in all cases.
- The villages are inhabited by milder male god like Maruti who live tamely in a temple and are happy with the offering of a coconut.?
- The groves lie at all locations, ranging from the floor of the river valley, slopes at various distances to the top, plateaus at intermediate levels and the crest of the hill.
- Cults associated with the sacred groves indicates their origin in the hunting-gathering stage of the society.?
- Since no specific sacred tree species such as Peepal ( Ficus religiosa ) need be present in a sacred grove, the sacred grove does not appear to be totemic in its origins.?
- Although groves served to create the proper setting for the cult rites including human sacrifices.?
- At Tonga tribe in West Africa - secret rites of the cult are performed by a sisterhood of priestesses. Any man entering the grove by accident is required to join the sisterhood and to dress & live like a woman for the rest of his life.
- In Indian mythology Tale of Manu’s son Ila, who entered the grove of the mother goddess Parvati by mistake and was transformed into a woman.?
- Sacred groves - preservation of a valuable tree or climber which was relatively rare in the locality. ( e.g., liana ( Gaydhari ) Succourer of the cattle ( Entada phaseoloides, Family Mimosae - used in treatment of snakebite of cattle).?
- Groves - perennial source of water.?
- Botanical survey of India has discovered some rare species of orchids in sacred groves in the Khasi Hills of Assam.?
- Sacred groves are serving as sanctuaries for forest birds and arboreal mammals, particularly monkeys.
- Sacred groves since hunting gathering stage associated with cults and preserved now for several centuries.?
- But Preservation of the sacred groves on a permanent basis is possible only by setting up as a network of preservation plots under the jurisdiction of the forest department.?
