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The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c7.t1: Characteristics of Plant-Life

The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c7.t1

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Characteristics of Plant-Life

c7.t1.1

The *Nyâya-vindu-tîkâ* of Dharmottara, the Buddhist scholiast, notices the phenomenon of sleep (contraction of leaves in the night) in certain plants (**स्वापः रात्रौ पत्रसङ्कोचः**).

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Udayana notices in plants the phenomena of life, death, sleep, waking, disease, drugging, transmission of specific characters by means of ova, movement towards what is favourable and away from what is unfavourable (**वृक्षादयः प्रतिनियतभोक्तृव्यधिष्ठिताः जीवनमरणस्वप्नजागरणरोगभेषजप्रयोग-बीजसजातीयानुबन्धानुकूलोपगमप्रतिकूलापगमादिभ्यः प्रसिद्धशरीरवत्** — Udayana, पृथिवीनििरूपणम्). I may add that metaphors drawn from the heliotropic movements of the *Sûryya-mukhî*-flower are among the stock-in-trade of Sanskrit poetry and belles-lettres.

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The Jaina writer Guṇaratna, in his commentary on the *Ṣaḍdarśana-Samuchchaya* (*circa* 1350 A.D.), enumerates the following characteristics of the plant-life: (1) stages of infancy, youth and age; (2) regular growth; (3) various kinds of movement or action connected with sleep, waking, expansion and contraction in response to touch, also movement towards a support or prop; (4) withering on wound or laceration of organs; (5) assimilation of food according to the nature of the soil; (6) growth or decay by assimilation of suitable or unsuitable food as prescribed in the science of the diseases of plants and their treatment (वृक्षायुर्वेद); (7) disease; (8) recovery from diseases or wounds by the application of drugs; (9) dryness or the opposite, due to the sap which answers to the chyle (रस) in animals; and (10) special food favourable to impregnation. (विशिष्टदौहृदादिमत्त्वं विशिष्टस्त्रीशरीरवत् यथा स्त्रीशरीरस्य तथाविधदौहृदपूरणात् पुत्रादिप्रसवनं तथा वनस्पतिशरीरस्यापि तत्पूरणात् पुष्पफलादिप्रसवनं।) Even the *Vanaspati*s (flowerless, but fruit-bearing trees) may be made to flower (*cf.* Vârahamihira's recipes for the treatment of plants for similar purposes; *cf.* Guṇaratna, *Tarkarahasyadîpikâ*, *Jaina-mâta*, Śloka 49).

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Śankara Miśra in the *Upaskâra* notes as an additional characteristic the growth of organs (or tissues) by natural recuperation after wound or laceration (भग्नक्षतसंरोहणे च, *Upaskâra*, Chap. IV., Ahnika 2, Sûtra 5, S. B. H., Vol. VI.).

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Guṇaratna gives a list of plants that exhibit the phenomena of sleep and waking (शमीप्रपुन्नाटसिम्बीसरकासुन्दक-बप्पूलांगस्त्यामलकीकतिप्रभृतीनां स्वापविबोधतः, *ibid.*). He also notices the sensitiveness to touch of plants like the Mimosa pudica, लज्जावती लता, which show a manifest reaction in the form of contraction, लज्जालूप्रभृतीनां हस्तादिसंसर्गात् यच्च सङ्कोचादिका परिस्फुटक्रिया उपलभ्यते (*ibid.*).

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