In the Vedic hymns, the powers of light and darkness fight their great battle for the clouds, and the ambrosia which they contain; this is the identical battle of Buddha with the hosts of Mâra. In the cloud-battle the ambrosia (_amrita_) which is in the clouds is won; the enlightenment and deliverance which Buddha wins are also called an ambrosia; and the kingdom of knowledge is the land of immortality. There is a tradition current in Thibet that the Tree of Buddha received the name of _Târâyana_, that is to say, The Way of Safety, because it grew by the side of the river that separates the world from heaven; and that only by means of its overhanging branches could mankind pass from the earthly to the immortal bank. The material tree of Buddha is generally represented either under the form of the _Asvattha_ (the _Ficus religiosa_), or of the _Udumbara_ (the _Ficus glomerata_), which appeared at the birth of Buddha; but in addition to these guises, we find it also associated with the _Asoka_ (_Jonesia Asoka_), the _Palasa_ (_Butea frondosa_), the _Bhânuphalâ_ (_Musa sapientum_), and sometimes with the Palmyra Palm (_Borassus flabelliformis_). Under one of these trees the ascetic, Gautama Buddha, one momentous night, went through successively purer and purer stages of abstraction of consciousness, until the sense of omniscient illumination came over him, and he attained to the knowledge of the sources of mortal suffering. That night which Buddha passed under the Tree of Knowledge on the banks of the river _Nairanjanâ_, is the sacred night of the Buddhist world. There is a Peepul-tree (_Ficus religiosa_) at Buddha Gayâ which is regarded as being this particular tree: it is very much decayed, and must have been frequently renewed, as the present tree is standing on a terrace at least thirty feet above the level of the surrounding country. The Iranian World-Tree.