India has had the talent to investigate, test or examine and analyse nature since the Vedic period. Hence, in the same way, even the vegetable world was analysed. There are many references to this in ancient literature. On the basis of their appearance and other characteristics, plants were divided into seven sub-parts in the Atharvaveda.
1. Trees 2. Grass 3. Medicine (herbs) 4. Shrubs 5. Creeper 6. Avataan 7. Vegetable
Later, in the Mahabharata, Vishnu Puran, Matsya Puran, Shukraneeti, Brihat Samhita and by Parashar, Charak, Sushruta, Udayan etc. vegetation, its birth, parts, acts, its types, uses, etc. were described in great detail. Some examples of which are given hereunder:
Life in Plants
Plants are not inanimate or lifeless things; they have life. Like any animate creature, they are sensitive to cold and heat, they feel happiness and sorrow, they drink water from their roots and also fall sick, etc. We have known these facts for thousands of years. They are mentioned in many of our books.
In Chapter 184 of the Shanti Parva in the Mahabharata, there is a dialogue between Sages Bharadwaj and Bhrigu. In it, Sage Bharadwaj asks that since trees can neither see nor hear, nor smell, nor feel pleasure, nor have the sense of touch, then how are they animate or living and how are they constituted by the five elements? Sage Bhrigu replied:
?O Sage, although the trees seem solid, yet there is no doubt that they have the space. That is why it is possible for them to bear fruits and flowers.
?The heat that the trees have shrivels or withers the leaves, the bark, the flowers and the fruits and they fall off. Therefore, it also proves that they have the sense of touch.
?It has also been seen that when there is a loud sound like that of the harsh winds, fire, thunder, etc. the flowers and the fruits of trees fall off. This proves that trees can hear also.
?The creeper covers the tree from all sides and climbs right to the top. No one can find his way unless he can see. This proves that trees can see too.
?With pure and holy fragrance, the tree becomes healthy and grows better. This proves that they can smell also.
?They drink water from their roots and if they are suffering from some disease we can put some medicine in their roots. This way, we can treat them too. This proves that trees have the sense of taste.
?Such as a man sucks water through a lotus stem into his mouth, likewise trees suck water through their roots upward with the help of wind.
Sukhdukhyoshcha grahanaacchinnasya cha
virohanaat
Jeevam pashyami Vrikshanam chaitanyam
na vidyate.
?When a tree is cut, it sprouts again and they accept joys and sorrows. Hence, I see that trees also have life and that they are not non-living things.
?The wind and the heat inside the tree help it to digest the water that it takes in from its roots. Complete assimilation of the food gives it glossiness and it grows well.?
Besides this, the sages Charak and Udayan have also described the feelings of life that one can observe or notice in trees and plants.
Sage Charka says: Tachyetanaavad Chetananch meaning they (trees) also have life like living creature. He further says Atra Sendriyatvena Vrikshadinaamapi Cetanatvam Bodhavyam meaning trees also have feelings. Therefore, we must know that they too have organs and hence life.
Udayan also says,
Vrikshadayah
pratiniyatbhokytradhisththitah
jeevanamaranaswapna
jaagaranarogabheshaja
prayogabaajasaja ateeyanubandhanuku
lopagampratikoo lapagamaadibhyah
prasiddha shareerawat.
?(Udayan-prithvinirupanam)
?Like a human body, trees also experience the following feelings-life, death, dream, waking up, disease, medicinal treatment, seed, grafting, accepting what is suitable and rejecting what is not.?
An amazing book?Parashar Vriksh Ayurveda
Dr. Girija Prasanna Majumdar, the famous botanist from Bengal has, in the chapter related to Botany in his book History of Science in India, talked about Vriksh Ayurveda, a book written by Sage Parashar. N.N.Sirkar'sfather, who himself was a famous scholar of Ayurveda, had found the manuscript of the original Vriksh Ayurveda. When Majumdar read this ancient book, he was amazed because it had such a scientific analysis of the growth of a tree from a seed that it could overwhelm any reader. He translated the essence of this book into English.
This book tells the glorious story of a thousand years of India'sknowledge. It was analysed at the National Symposium on Swadeshi Life Sciences in Jabalpur in 1992 by the former Human Resource Development Minister, Dr, Murli Manohar Joshi. He says that he wants to mention one more book and that is Vriksh Ayurveda whose writer was Sage Parashar. The scientific evaluation in it is amazing.
This book is in six parts-
1. Birth of a seed. 2. Vegetation. 3. Shrubs. 4. Vegetables. 5. Creepers. 6. Treatment.
There are eight chapters in the first part of the book in which the birth of a seed has been analysed in a very scientific way. The first chapter of this part is Beejotpatti Sootradhyay, in which Sage Parashar says:
Apohi kalalam bhutva yat pindasthanukam
bhavet
Tadevam vyuhamanatvaat beejatwamaghi
gacchati.
(This book is available with Ocean Books (P) Ltd. 4/19 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110 002.)
