An exhibition will help you discover the botanical heritage of India
While the market is flooded with Ayurvedic products, little do we know about their botanical history and their diverse application. According to Ashtanga Hridaya (ancient Indian ayurvedic text book), “there is nothing in the universe which is non-medicinal.” It is clear that there are no plants on the earth without any medicinal value. While some plants are used as single remedies, others are used in combinations.
It is to showcase this bio-wealth that the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew at london and Centre for World Environmental History (CWEH), University of Sussex, will be hosting an exhibition titled The Botanical Heritage of India on October 26, at India International Centre. The exhibition will showcase specimens and literature that depict some of the most crucial chapters of botanical history of India and the world during which the order of the modern natural world was shaped.
Indian Natural History Collections in Botany and Meteorology is the theme of the exhibition, which aims to help people assemble, reconsider and debate about the botanical and meteorological histories of the Indian ocean region from c.1500 to c.2000. On view will be the copies of paintings and drawings by botanical artists of species discovered by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and corresponding artefacts from the archives of Botanical Survey of India; a collection of the Bengali manuscripts known as Puthi, one of the earliest records of indigenous knowledge of plants and their medicinal values. The exhibition will also celebrate the life and work of Indian botanist, Janaki Ammal Edavaleth Kakkat, placing her in the rightful place in the pantheon of botanical heritage of India.
In India alone there are about 8,000 (out of 17,564) species of plants, out of which 4,635 species are being used by the ethnic communities — 2,000 in Unani, Tibetan and Siddha, 1,800 in Ayurvedic system, 500 in homoeopathy and 4,700 by various communities. Also, Bengal possesses more than 700 species, from aromatic plants, spices to herbal vegetables of which about 75 are known to be operated commercially, either collected from nature or cultivated. Thus, Puthi will be an important pointer to the existence of indigenous knowledge of plants and their medicinal values. These manuscripts depict combinations of different parts of medicinal plants in providing antidote to snake bite and treating diseases like ailments of skin, leprosy, jaundice, inflammation of eyes, bilious fever, cough and cold, rheumatoid fever, urinary infection, stomach distension, dysentery, ailments of gall bladder, headache and insomnia.
Infographs prepared by Botanical Survey of India and Central National Herbarium also form an important component of the exhibition. They have been prepared, keeping a wider audience in mind. These posters will provide a historical background of the discipline of botany through the work of William Roxburgh and Nathaniel Wallich.
Adding to the collection are the infographs prepared by Botanical Survey of India using a combination of text and visual material depicts the natural world as classified through the discipline of botany such as Algae, Fungi, Bryophytes, Pteridophytes and Angiosperms.
The exhibition will be open to the public from October 27 to November 7.