Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c2: Preface

Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c2

Language: English

Preface

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My thesis on Plants and Plant-life as in Indian treatises and traditions, submitted and finally approved for the Griffith Memorial Prize for 1925, is being presented at last in the following pages to the reading public. I must humbly mention that this thesis is rather a result of certain specific inquiries, undertaken by me in 1923, to satisfy a curiosity as to what wealth of information on the subject of Plants and Plant-life might yet be gathered from Indian literature which is a continuous record of many centuries and a vast store-house of human experiences, fancies and speculations. It was not an easy task for me to face the difficulties of exploiting the various sources of information, specially where these remained concealed in Sanskrit and other Indian works not accessible to me in English translations. It is happy to recall to my mind that when I had proceeded with the task the prospect was far from being bright, but to my great astonishment, within a month I was able to collect numerous passages having bearings upon the subject, and enabling me to conceive a much wider plan of treatment than one restricted to the requirements of the Science of Botany. This is to say, that in this thesis the plan has only been partially carried out. I have little doubt that a vivid account of how much human civilisation has derived from Plants and Plant-life in its progress, on the basis of the materials collected by me, will read like a romance which may be calculated not only to fascinate but also to instruct.

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The plan and method of treatment which I have followed in working out the present thesis are intended to meet the demands of a modern student of Botany like myself. The masses of information collected by me have been classified and systematically arranged for the convenience of reference. It will be seen that the chapter-headings are taken from Botanical treatises, and expedience is my only excuse, for, in the absence of any Indian Botanical text there is no other alternative than utilizing a scheme which is available, in order to render the treatment of the subject really systematic. But I think I have not failed to indicate the three different lines upon which the contemplations of the Ancients on Plants and Plant-life had proceeded in India. As a matter of fact the titles of the three Books : Book I—Botany and Philosophic Speculations ; Book II—Botany and Science of Medicine ;

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Book III—Botany and Science of Agriculture—have been conceived on the basis of three different lines that I was able to make out.

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In the Introduction I have tried to suggest what reply can reasonably be given to the enquiry whether there was at all anything like a Science of Botany in India. It has been suggested that there are not only reference to such individual Sciences as the *Krishitantra*, *Vrikshāyurveda* and *Bheshajavidyā* but clear quotations from such individual authors as *Kāśyapa*, *Parāśara* and *Sāraswata*. And yet I have not gone so far as to maintain that there was any single ancient Indian treatise coinciding with any of the modern treatises of Botany. I have been concerned to emphasise the fact that the ideas of plants and plant-life in India are traced to a stage when Botanical discipline had not obtained an independent position, for much of the knowledge which might be relegated to the Science of Botany appears to have been either subservient to Philosophy, or to the Science of Medicine, or to the Science of Agriculture.

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In each Book, and in each of its sections I have dealt with a particular topic, and the information supplied in different heads will, I hope, sufficiently show that though much of the knowledge is common place, there is abundance of scientific observations, classifications, generalisations, theories and applications. While I leave the following pages to speak for themselves, I must say that in my opinion the supreme value of such a study as mine is rather historical. When I say this I think I have said much. An acquaintance with the accumulated experiences of those who have gone before us, and attempts to grapple with the problems suggested by the phenomena which confronted them, is sure to serve as an inspiration and strengthen us in our belief that the patient investigations which the modern students are carrying out in the field of Botany are of paramount importance for the progress of human knowledge and increase of human comforts.

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Among the works consulted I must acknowledge my immense debt to Dr. B. N. Seal's "The Positive Science of the Ancient Hindus." I have freely utilised the translations of the Vedic hymns, the Charaka and Suśruta-saṃhitās, and other original texts rendered by authors whose names have been mentioned at proper places. I regret that from want of time I have not been able to verify all the Latin synonyms of the plants mentioned in the work, and in some cases the Latin equivalents have not been given at all. This is an omission which I hope to rectify should a second edition of the work be called for. I have no pretension to Oriental Scholarship, nor am I a Sanskritist. I cannot perhaps claim

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that I have been able to give the subject a full treatment it deserves. I am aware of my shortcomings, but if the account of Plant-life serves to awaken a genuine interest in the study of this subject I shall regard my labour as amply rewarded.

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I am very grateful to Dr. B. M. Barua, D. Lit. (London), of the Calcutta University, who gave me his best guidance in formulating the scheme of the work, and I am sure nothing will please him more than the continuation of the present work so as to give completeness to my accounts of Plants and Plant-life as in Indian treatises and traditions. I am also grateful to Mr. R. C. Adhikary, a great lover of ancient civilisation and things Indian, who has never failed to cheer me up with his valued friendship and helped me materially with suggestions and sound criticisms from time to time but for which my work would have been substantially poorer. My thanks are also due to the staff of the Calcutta University Press who have always been patient, courteous and helpful to me—a novice in the matter of publication. I should not conclude this preface without mentioning that my wife has all along associated herself with this humble pursuit of mine, specially in seeing the book through the press and preparing its contents together with the list of the plants mentioned in the text.