The Aśoka Groves of the Rāmāyaṇa: Imagery and Meanings

The best-known garden in all of Sanskrit literature is most decidedly Lanka’s asokavanika, a term usually translated as asoka grove, with reference to the celebrated trees with flaming blossoms (Jonesia asoca Roxb., or Saraca asoca [Roxb.] de Wilde); here, in the Sundarakanda of the Ramayana, Hanuman at last meets Sita, who had been abducted by Ravana (in particular, Ramayana V.12-13). The last Book of the poem, the Uttarakanda, on the other hand, conjures up another asokavanika, this time located at Ayodhya, where Rama and Sita are described enjoying moments of happiness before Sita’s pregnancy is announced, and before she expresses her wish to pay a visit to the hermitages of the rsis on the bank of the Ganges which preludes her exile (VII.41). In keeping with the general qualities of the poem, these passages from the Ramayana rely on an image of the garden that is already essentially that of kavya. Or, better, Lanka’s description of the asokavanika, which represents the model for that of Ayodhya’s asokavanika, appears possibly to draw upon an already settled tradition and, in turn, clearly generates an exemplary prototype. Given the importance of the Ramayana itself, the importance of Lanka’s asokavanika in the general economy of the narrative, and the strong emotional impact of the relevant passages, it can in fact be seen to take on a sort of archetypical value as far as the theme of the garden in classical Indian literature is concerned.