Ancient View On Types Of Plants

Our present education system leans heavily on the western resources and delivery methods. In many fields, the contents of various subjects start with the foundations of imported thoughts and research. Our own oriental knowledge takes a back seat or even totally disappears in the teaching and learning pictures. While discussing Mahakavi Kalidasa in our classrooms, professors often state that Kalidasa is a great poet and he can be called as "Shakespeare of India", despite the fact that Kalidasa lived and created his works over a thousand years before Shakespeare. One cannot even imagine a professor in England referring to Shakespeare as "Kalidasa of England".

There is a vast treasure of knowledge in our ancient texts and literature on any field of learning. Unfortunately, most of our valuable texts were lost during the invasion of parts of our country by foreign forces. It is said that the library in some of our ancient universities were torched by the invaders and burnt for days together, reducing their resources to ashes. Large valuable literature was lost when the people having them were forced to flee their places due to fear of losing lives. The abolition of Gurukul System and introduction of Macaulay System of education led to the belief that all learning should start with what is given to us by the west. 

In spite of the loss of very valuable resources for the above reasons, whatever is left with us today is itself sufficient to indicate the extent of knowledge available in them. 

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Let us take the example about classification of plants to compare what we have learnt in our education system and knowledge available in our ancient literature.

We learnt in our Science or Botany classes about different types of plants. We were taught that the plant kingdom can be classified into five basic types: Herbs, Shrubs, Trees, Climbers and Creepers.

• Herbs are short-sized plants. Their stems are soft, delicate and can be easily bent. They have a short life cycle and usually live for one or two years. They have few branches or do not have branches. 
• Shrubs are medium-sized plants. They grow taller than herbs but shorter than trees. They have hard and woody stems with branches. The stems can be bent easily and have relatively longer life span than herbs. 
• Trees are longest living plant types and grow tall with many branches, with some exceptions like coconut and palm trees which have no branches. They have strong trunks and provide valuable wood for many uses like making furniture and used in building constructions.
• Climbers have thin, long and weak stems which cannot stand upright on their own. But they can grow vertically with external support and bear their own weight.
• Creepers are plants that stay on the ground, spread out and grow. They have thin, long and very fragile stems and cannot bear their own weight.

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Discussion about plants can be seen in many ancient texts. Texts on Ayurveda deal extensively with the plant kingdom, various types of plants and their uses as medicine. 

A clear classification of plant types can be seen in "Shat Pashnopanishad", popularly referred as Pashnopanishad. Six scholars from different parts of the country have amassed knowledge during their own studies, but have some unanswered questions. They embark on a journey to find a Guru who can satisfactorily answer their questions. They all get one answer as the person who can answer their questions. They are told by various sources that Bhagwan Pippalada is the right person to answer their questions. They converge and approach Bhagwan Pippalada for advising them on their questions. Interestingly the grouping of questions relate to evolution and formation of the Universe, creation of non-living items around us, creation of plant and animals, and working of the human body in connection with both material world or physical functions as well as spiritual advancement. 

While explaining the evolution of the Plant World, Bhagwan Pippalada has classified the plant world into these six types: Oshadi, Vanaspati, Lataa, Druma, Virudha, Twaksara. Their features are exhaustively explained and can be summarised as under:

• Oshadi (ओषधिः): These are plants that die after delivering their next generation. Examples are Paddy, Ragi, Wheat, Banana etc. The interesting thing about this classification is that the life of plant ends with the birth of next generation!
• Vanaspati (वनस्पति): These are plants and trees that give out fruits without flowering. Usually flowering precedes fruit bearing. But in the case of Vanaspati, the plants give fruits directly without flowering. Example is Pippala or Bodhi or Peepul tree or Sacred Fig (Aswatha).
• Lataa (लता): These are creepers and is the same as creepers referred above. They cannot stand erect on their own but can grow upwards with support of others like trees, pillars etc. 
• Druma (द्रुम): These are plants or trees that first flower and then give fruits. There are many such trees with best examples being Mango, Jackfruit etc. Most of the fruit yeilding trees are in this category.
• Virudha (विरुधः): This is same as Shrubs mentioned above. They grow up to three or four feet, have many branches with soft stems and can be easily bent.
• Twaksaara (त्वक् सार): These are plants which have their strength only in the outer shell, but do not have anything inside them. Best example is the Bamboo family. Twak means skin. Saara means essence. Inside portion is hallow and the strength of the plant is in its outer shell or skin. 

Twaksaara and Vanaspati mentioned above are interesting classifications and match with reality around us. Though most of the fruit bearing trees first flower and then give fruits, there are a very few exceptions and they are grouped here. The classification of herbs, shrubs , creepers, climbers and trees are all included in the above six groups.

A detailed study of Pashnopanishad further makes subtle difference between plants, animals and man. In case of plants, consumed food moves upwards where as in the case of man it moves downwards. It also specifies that plants also have feelings and respond well to favourable atmosphere. The order of creation also is detailed here. 

There are many more interesting explanation here about creation of the external universe as well as internal systems of human beings, and other processes like consumption and digestion of food, growth process from mothers womb onwards, sleep and dreams, thinking process etc.

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A detailed and systematic study is required about the various branches of knowledge in our Vedic literature and modren scientific findings.