At first, the water is absorbed in the jelly like structure and a nucleus is formed and then slowly, it takes up the energy and the nutrition from the earth. Then the structure develops into an incipient seed and later, takes the form of a solid tree. This is the process of formation of protoplasm, which has been described in Beejatva Adhikaran.
The second chapter deals with the soil. We get a detailed description of the kinds and qualities of soil.
The third chapter deals with forests. It says that there are fourteen different forests. Whenever we talk of social forestry, this will definitely be mentioned.
The fourth chapter Vrikshang Sutradhyay deals with physiology. About photo-synthesis, it says ?Patraani tu vaatatapranjakani abhigrihanti.?
In this, vaat means CO2 ; atap means sunlight and ranjak means chlorophyll. This book clarifies that plants make their own food using carbon dioxide + sun + chlorophyll.
The fifth chapter Pushpaang Sutradhyay deals with flowers. It talks about how many kinds of flowers are there, how many parts the flowers have, what these parts are and classifies them on that basis.
The chapter on fruits Falaang Surtradhyay deals with the kinds of fruits, their qualities, diseases and classification. The seventh chapter Vrikshang Sutradhyay deals with the parts of tree. Describing these, Sage Parashar says, patram (leaves), pushp (Flowers), moolam (roots), twak (bark along with the veins), kandam (stem), saram (trunk), sarasam (sap), niryasa (excretions), beejam (seed), praroham (shoots) and their relation to each other have been described here. In the eighth chapter, the growth of a tree from a seed has been described. What has been said about the seed is very important. It is the responsibility of the present-day botanists to note how deep he went into the process of seeds and leaves. Parashar says:
Beej matrika tu beejasyam beej
patrantubeejmatrikaayamadhyasthamadi
Patranch matrikacchadastu tanupatrakvat
matrikacchadanacchha
Kanchukmityachakshate.
Beejantu prakritya dwividham bhawati
ekmatrikam
dwimatrikancha. Tatraikapatraprarohanam
vrikshanam
beejmekamatrikam bhavati. Dwi patra
prarohanantu dwimatrikancha.
?Monocotyledon and dicotyledon. Ek beej patri and dwi beej patri are descriptions of the seeds, how they take the water and minerals from the earth and slowly grow into big trees. Classifying the seeds, he talks about how each sees grows.?
Then he has described the functions of each part of the seed at the time of germination.
Ankurnirvrite beejmatrakaya rasah samplavate prarohangeshu.
Yada prarohah swatantren bhoomyah parthivarasam grihanati
tada beej matrika prashoshama padyate.
?(Vriksh ayurveda-dwiganiyadhyaya)
?After taking in the water and minerals and growing, until the roots are formed. At that stage, the seed leaves are not required, and they fall off.?
The tale of the development
The book mentions the composition of the leaves and the fruits. The food of the trees is made by the leaves. The water and minerals from the earth are brought up by carriers called syandini. This is the description of the ?ascent of sap?. The sap reaches the leaves where the thin veins are spread like a net. These veins are of two kinds?upsarp and apsarp. They take the flow of the sap upwards and downwards via different routes. Even today'sscience does not have complete knowledge about how it can push the sap upwards against the earth'sgravitational pull. Only with the knowledge of capillary action, can it be explained. The western countries were unaware of this for a very long time. Knowledge of the principle of capillary motion is necessary along with the knowledge of botany. What happens when the sap flows in the leaf, has been clearly explained in this book:
?Ranjaken pashchyamaanaat? means that it is digested by the process of colouring like photosynthesis. This is very important. After this, he says ?utpaadam visarjayanti?. We all know that the leaves produce oxygen in the day from photosynthesis and carbon dioxide in the night. They take carbon dioxide in the day to make their food. They throw out the excess vapour. This is known as transpiration. The book has a description of all this.
He has further said that when the excess vapour is thrown out, it creates energy. This is a description of the respiratory system. In short, it describes how the sap goes up and reaches the leaves to make food, how energy is created by transpiration. This entire process makes up a tree. Even today, no other theory, except this, about the growth of a tree, is available.
Further, while describing the structure of the cell, Sage Parashar says, ?Pache raskoshastu rasaspashyah aadharanch. Khalu vrikshpatre raskoshstva parisankhyeeyah santi. Te kalakeshtitena paanch bhautik guna samanvitasya rasasyashayancha. Ev ranjak yuktamanavashcha.? This means that it is as microscopic as an atom, it has protoplasm and cell membranes. ?Kala tu sushmaccha pachaka ya bhootoshma paachita kalala dupajayate.? This explains that this call is created from the phase of the seed, the terrestrial juices and terrestrial energy. Sage Parashar further describes the parts of a cell. His description of the cell, which was made thousands of years ago, is a more detailed and clearer one than that made by Robert Hook with the help of the microscope in 1665. He says that the cell is composed of:
1 Outer wall
2 Gap with a colouring matter.
3 Inner wall
4 Not visible to the naked eye (Anwashch).
(This book is available with Ocean Books (P) Ltd. 4/19 Asaf Ali Road, new Delhi-110 002)
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