Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c22.s2: (b) Plants

Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c22.s2

Language: English

(b) Plants

c22.s2.1

Scientific observation was applied to the phenomena of the vegetable kingdom. The body of knowledge arrived at through the colligation of facts consisted, however, in mere guesses or hints of truth.

The following ideas of rudimentary plant-physiology have been credited to the experience of the "rhizotomi," pharmocologists, plant-physicians (*Briksa-yurvedists*) and horticulturists of ancient and mediæval India by Bhimchandra Chatterji:

c22.s2.3

1. Sexuality: Flowers are the organs of plants.
2. Phosphorescence, and exudation of water.
3. Photo-synthesis: The sun is the source of energy in the fuel; (*i*) plants assimilate potential energy from the sun, (*ii*) the less refractive rays (red, yellow, and orange) of the setting sun are specially adapted to assimilation by plants.

c22.s2.4

4. Plants are living organisms: They have among others the following phenomena of life: (*a*) sap-circulation, (*b*) power of movement, heliotropic, nyctitropic and other movements, sensitiveness to touch ("bashfulness") etc., (*c*) growth and reproduction.

c22.s2.5

Characteristics of plant life as known to the Doctors of Nyaya (logic) are thus given by Seal:

c22.s2.6

(1) Udayana (*c* A.D. 975) notices in plants the phenomena of life, death, sleep, waking, disease, drugging, transmission of specific characters by means of ova, movement towards what is favorable and away from what is unfavorable.
(2) Gunaratna (*c* A.D. 1350) enumerates the following: (*i*) stages of infancy, youth and age; (*ii*) regular growth; (*iii*) various kinds of movement or action connected with sleep, waking, expansion and contraction in response to touch; also movement towards a support or prop; (*iv*) withering on wound or laceration of organs; (*v*) assimilation of food according to the nature of the soil; (*vi*) growth or decay by assimilation of suitable or unsuitable food as prescribed in the science of the diseases of plants and their treatment (*Briksayurveda*); (*vii*) disease; (*viii*) recovery from diseases or wounds by the application of drugs; (*ix*) dryness, or the opposite, due to the sap which answers to the chyle (*rasa*) in animals; and (*x*) special food favorable to impregnation.

c22.s2.7

Various classifications of plants (into groups with subdivisions) were attempted. These were, like the system of Jussieus, mostly based on properties.⁵⁴ They were mainly useful hints for practical men interested in economic botany. Identification was thus rendered easier than in the system of the early European botanists, which, according to Sachs, was too vague and insufficient for the purpose.

Linked texts (1)

Vṛkṣāyurveda — Surapāla, Sanskrit