Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c6.67

c6.67

These three hymns taken together give us in a nutshell a world of ideas—a whole science in a few words. We get here the names of certain plants with *Soma*, the king of plants, at their head, and *Aśvavatī*, *Somavatī*, *Urjayantī* and *Udojasha*, and possibly also *Aśvattha* (Ficus religiosa) and *Palāśa* (Butea frondosa) as powerful agencies of cure against diseases. Innumerable applications of plants are referred to though not definitely named. We are told that plants used to be applied as medicines, both individually and collectively, against diseases natural and supernatural, against bodily infirmities as well as against curses and the like. We also come to learn that plants could be used by themselves as well as in association with incantations and prayers. The genesis of the whole body of medicine is given as Divine, and the nature of the cure is clearly characterised as radical, permanent and comprehensive We are given in brief either the condensation, a scientifically nice epitome, or the germ of the Science of Medicine, of the art of cure, of demonology and classification of plants or Botany at once. Behind the wealth of poetry we get some solid facts of scientific importance. The whole thing has the air of a summary distinctly presupposing more elaborate statements, a knowledge of details. There is no vagueness, but freshness of the original revealed to us in an unmistakable language. Where are the details gone? They are either, to all intents and purposes, lost or they existed in popular memory and were handed down by tradition from generation to generation till at last they came to be synoptically recorded in some treatise; and the Vedic texts quoted may be the synopsis of a synopsis.