The depiction of botanical and arboreal elements in Indian visual culture plays a vital role as a window into the subcontinent’s progressing cultural and spiritual history. Spanning from the proto-historic urbanism of the Indus Valley Civilisation to the monumental statehood of the Mauryan Empire, vegetal motifs functioned not purely as aesthetic embellishments but as potent emblems of divinity, fecundity, material wealth, and the symbiotic link between mankind and the environment. Iconographic evidence derived from glyptic seals, early relief sculptures, and sacred topoi indicates that trees were conceptualised as living, sentient entities imbued with ritual significance, protective qualities, and auspicious power, rather than as mere exercises in botanical realism. This paper traces the structural and conceptual evolution of plant symbolism from the Harappan matrix through to the Mauryan epoch, subsequently juxtaposing these ancient iconographies with modern and contemporary artistic portrayals in India. It contends that while early Indian art primarily codified the tree as a sanctified, socially integrated archetype, contemporary creative practices frequently reframe organic flora through the lenses of ecological crisis, rapid urbanisation, personal memory, and political identity. In spite of these shifting paradigms, the persistent centrality of arboreal themes points to the tree's position as one of the most resilient, expressive, and continuously reimagined motifs within the lexicon of Indian art history.
Peddinti Srikavya (Mon,) studied this question.