West Bengal'ssecond Chief Minister Dr. B.C. Roy was a renowned physician too and even during the long years in office he used to regularly see patients at his residence in Kolkata. One gentleman who had a sickly son, managed to get an opportunity to consult Dr. Roy one day. The doctor had just one look at the boy and immediately prescribed ?two rosogollas (a sweet) every morning? as the medicine.
The gentleman was aghast. He spoke about this ?prescription? to the contact man about the ?cavalier attitude? of Dr. Roy. Upon which, Dr. Roy made it known to the anguished father that the only malady his son suffered from was lack of protein and the rosogollas, made from casein, would provide his son with adequate protein and make him healthy.
While rosogollas may be prescribed by doctors in rice-eating Bengal as a potent medicine against protein-deficiency, Ayurvedic doctors in another rice-eating State, Kerala, would often prescribe rice as the medicine for various ailments. However, not every variety of rice has the medicinal properties, otherwise no one in Kerala would have ever suffered from any ailment.
At the 2nd International Rice Congress held in New Delhi from October 9 to 13, three researchers from the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvanantapuram, Kerala read a paper which claimed that the Njavara (Navara) rice variety was the ?single largest used medicinal rice in the world? .The researchers are: George Thomas, Sreejayan and Dinesh Raj. I would like to quote a few paragraphs from the paper they presented at the Rice Congress, a gigantic event attended by more than 1,400 scientists from all over the world.
?The medicinal and neutraceutical potential of the ancient rice strain, which is called Sastika (shashtika) in Sanskrit and Njavara (navara) in Malayalam was known since the period of Susruta and Charaka, the great progenitors of Ayurveda?. (According to an article on rice written by Dr. Y.L. Nene, Managing Editor of Asian Agri-History, quarterly, in the Souvenir issued on this occasion, ?Shastika means a rice that is harvested within sixty days of sowing. He places Charaka, the ancient medicine man as living in 700 B.C. and Susruta, the surgeon, in 400 B.C).
The researchers added: ?Ayurvedic scholars of Kerala have developed a variety of health conducive practices in the past using Njavara grains. Njavara cultivation is geographically restricted to Kerala and no other medicinal rice is used in the world as widely as Njavara is used in Ayurveda. Njavarakizhi? a rejuvenating and restoring therapy and an acclaimed remedy for rheumatism, and neural disorders and Shashtika anna lepa?pasting of Njavara grains cooked in milk on the whole body are the two important health care system using Njavara grains. In addition, Njavara grains have been traditionally recommended to the emaciated and debilitated and Keralans consume Njavara grains as Karkidakakanji or Marunnukanji?a porridge prepared out of the Njavara grains and certain other herbals?as a replenishing health drink during the month of Karkkidakun (July-August).?
?Njavara-based practices have attracted people world over and are the main centre of attraction in Ayurvedic tourism. Consequently, Njavara grains have good demand and market value.?
However, another group of researchers from Kerala, this time from the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Pattambi, in their paper on ?Potential and prospects of medicinal rice with special references to Navara? has recorded several rice varieties grown in Chhattisgarh too as having medicinal properties. The researchers are P. V. Balachandran, S. Leena Kumary, Rose Mary Francies and Jiji Joseph.
They say: ?In Chhattisgarh, many of the traditional varieties are reported to have medicinal properties. Collection surveys made during the (nineteen) seventies by Richaria (a well-known rice breeder of Madhya Pradesh, U.P. and later Chhattisgarh),and in the late (nineteen) nineties by Das &Oudhia have led to the identification of more than 50 medicinal rice varieties. It is reported that the variety Aalcha is used for treatment of pimples while Baissor is used for chronic headache and epilepsy and Gathuhan, Karhani and Kalimooch respectively for treatment of rheumatism, paralysis and skin diseases.
?In the Jeypore tract of Orissa, the rice varieties Meher, Saraiphul and Danwar? are reported to be used by the local tribal people against various ailments. The Uttara Kanada district of Karnataka (there are) presence of two medicinal rice varieties, Atikaya and Kari Bhatta. While Atikaya is used as a health tonic, Kari Bhatta is used as a cure against skin infections.?
?These researchers too mention about the medicinal properties of not only the Navara variety but also Cbhmennelu and Rakhtashali saying that ?it is believed that the Njavara variety, which matures in sixty days, has the medicinal property of redressing tridosha (the Ayurvedic term for imbalance in body humors) the root cause of body ailments. This rice has the unique capability to enrich body elements, to exclude toxic metabolites, to strengthen, regenerate and energise body, to regulate blood pressure and to prevent skin diseases and premature ageing??
How old is rice as a foodgrain? Dr. Nene in his article says: ?Archaeological findings of the Indus-Saraswati civilisation reveals that wild rice was eaten in advanced Mesolithic or pre-Neolithic (c 8080 plus/minus 115 B.C.) period at Chopani Mando. Prolific use of rice (cultivated?Oryza sativa;wild annual?Oryza nivara; and wild perennial?(Oryza rufigopon) husk and chaff as pottery temper at Koldiwah (5440 plus/minus240 B.C. and the discovery of grains of cultivated rice at Mahagara establish the cultivation of Oryza sativa. Incidentally, all three locations, Chopani Mando, Koldiwah and Mahagara are in the Ganga region of central Uttar Pradesh. These dates were again confirmed in recent studies. Rice cultivation apparently diffused in all directions from the Ganga valley??
We thus have information from an agricultural science regarding the antiquity and location of the first cultivation of rice which affects life of half of humanity.
