The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.s1.9

c8.s1.9

The translators have always supposed that *arundhatī* denoted a creeper, which attaches itself to certain types of trees (cf., *Vedic Index*, see the word). It is said that it climbs the trees (*V.*, V, 5-3) but the trails of resin run on the bark as the stalks of creepers, with which they can be compared. The names of trees from which it "comes out" remove all doubt. Moreover *Arundhatī* receives the name of *lomaśa-vakṣaṇā* (*AV.*, V, 5-7) which has been translated by Roth as: "am Leibe behaart" and which is included in the *Vedic Index* as signifying one which has "a hairy stem". But these interpretations are based only on the supposition that it is a plant. The root *vakṣ* denotes "to grow; to shoot up" (Ger. *wachsen*, etc.). The word should therefore be understood to mean "one which has a growth of catechu which is obtained not by incision as the gums, but by boiling the bark; the incision of the bark furnishes a certain gum. Grislea tomentosa produces a variety of honey in its flowers (red in colour and used in dyes like the lac), its wood is succulent and eatable. There is every reason to believe that the resins and gums grouped under the names of arundhatī or lākṣā¹ were not solely those which are produced under the action of the Coccus lacca and which form the red lac but also those which are produced from those very trees by means of incision. In fact, in hymn V, 5 (st. 6 & 7), it is said that arundhatī has the colour of gold (hiraṇya-varṇa) and that of the Sun (sūrya-varṇa) which can be correctly applied to resins but not to the red lac.