Not many may be aware of the special mention of the Indian banyan tree in Milton’s Paradise Lost. He talks of the ‘fig tree as known to the Indians in Malabar or Decan’ and how Adam and Eve gathered the leaves of the fig to gird their waist and cover their guilt and shame!

 That was, thanks to the immense interest generated by various European travellers of the period to India who recorded the exotic life of the Indies. And now, thanks to the efforts of an Indian scientist, the Indian botanical knowledge of the 16th and 17th century has been brought home.

 To Dr Annamma Spudich, cell biologist, and scholar in residence at Bangalore’s National Centre for Biological Sciences, it was an accidental brush with one such book that nudged her from her experimental science track to a slightly off track research. “It was a book by John Gerard, The Greate Herbal that influenced me with its many images, among that of the ficus tree. Many other European books on spices and medicinal plants that had been part of my childhood in Kerala set me on the course to explore the how and why of it all,” she said during an interview at NCBS, where she has curated an ongoing exhibition on Such treasure and rich merchandise.
 Using cotton blocks, window panels and the central open podium artistically, with the help of Sarita Sundar of Trapeze, Annamma has woven art, science and history. The exhibition is open till the end of the month.
Reproductions from seven European books have been combined to give a comprehensive idea of the east-west interaction with its sub-texts on the socio-cultural climate of the period.

 Indian botanicals were important ingredients in European life as culinary additives, medicines and perfumes. While most of the books do not talk of scholars who contributed to the works, they acknowledge Indians as scholars. Like Garcia da Orta’s Colloquies on the simples, drugs and Material Medica of India published in 1568 in Goa for the Portuguese. It refers to the ‘important system of botanical knowledge taught of yore by the muses of Ganges and Ind but unknown to Galen and Greeks existed in India’. The hakims and vaidyas of Goa helped him, noted Annamma.

 The book that Jan Huyghen van Linschoten published in 1596, Itinerario, which talks of how ‘many of the heathen are well acquainted with medicine.. they help not only Indians but also the Christians .. with more dedication than the Europeans’. He, like many others, was fascinated by the ficus: “This tree is very wonderful to behold with branches that extend on all sides that 200 men can stand beneath them”.

Of particular interest to Annamma was the Hortus Malabaricus published by the Dutch governor of Malabar van Rheede in 1678-1693 and devoted entirely to plants of Malabar. It records almost 742 medicinal plants. With her keen interest to trace the vaidyas of Kerala and document their methods and culture, this book came as an eye-opener in many ways. Many of the plant names found their way to Carl Linnaeus Species Plantarum classification.
 Rheede acknowledges physician Itty Achudem and three Brahmin physicians of the Ayurveda tradition by testimonials in their hand. “It is a social indicator that the Brahmins had accepted Achudem’s selection despite he belonging to the lower Ezhava community,” Annamma said. Achudem was honoured with a genus in his name, Achudemia.

 The drawings and copper engravings in Hortus of the many plants are intricate and elaborate in detail. However, as Annamma points out, this cannot be said of the drawings in some of the cityscapes of the period that show the natives half-naked or in clothing nothing like what we know! The women are depicted smoking!

 This is not about history alone is borne by the fact that many plants were even recognised by Rheede as rapidly approaching their end. The medical texts referred in the testimonials of the scholar-physicians are long lost and the book could be the only extant record of plants of south India, said Annamma. Annamma who has done the research and tracking all by herself took almost eight years to complete it. An exhibition at Stanford in 2003 helped speed the process. On why the period is 16th-17th century, she says that prior to that there is very little world literature on the subject that can be traced directly to India.

 These records, she believes are an invaluable aid in the study of botany today. “Interestingly, almost 50 single molecule drugs used today are derived from botanical sources. Not all are from India but all those found in Hortus are in the list! So you see, this work is not just historical but has a place in drug discovery. Aspirin, codein, etc are isolated from ethno botanical sources.”

 Much more needs to be done, believes Annamma who plans to document the ashtavaidya tradition next. With her scientific training and passion for natural history, plus a cultural perspective, she is optimistic she can decipher many of the ‘phantasmagorical descriptions’.

TIDBITS
India has a long tradition of medicinal plants dating back to 1500-900 BC. The exhibition has reproduced prints of the Bower manuscript dating to 4th AD, recovered from the tomb of Yasomitra, Buddhist monk. In all, there are 51 leaves both sides of each containing written texts. The originals are in Bodleian library, Oxford! Interesting records pepper the exhibits. Like the picture of the elephants Hanno (derived from Malayalam Aana) from Cochin who was gifted to King Manuel of Portugal who used the animal to win the heart of the Pope and allowed Portugal to expand in the east. The same elephant went on to be immortalised by renowned artists like Raphael!!

 Then there are the tales of individuals like Elihu Yale who spent 20 years at Fort St George in Madras and made a fortune. From Yale archives a list of items salvaged from a shipwreck carrying wealth from India talks of diamonds, bag of pearls, gold, musk, pepper, cotton, etc. The map of East Indies shows Madras city divided into ‘black town’ and ‘white town’!