The Uttarakhand government's initiative to spend R25 crore on an elusive mythical herb should trigger a wider quest to identify,document and analyse life-saving Himalayan herbs.
THE MYTHICAL herb, sanjeevani, which saved the life of Laxman, brother of Lord Ram, as described in the epic Ramayana authored by Maharshi Valmiki, received widespread media attention recently when the Uttarakhand government proposed to spend R25 crore in finding this miraculous herb. As the legend goes, Lord Hanuman arrived in the Himalayas to gather this life-saving herb, but since he could not identify sanjeevani, he uprooted a part of the mountain and carried it to Lanka. Because of the complexities in identifying this mythical herb, there is skepticism about the proposed project.
The concept of sanjeevani is deeply rooted in the Indian traditional medicinal system. It is also an integral part of the cultural heritage of the country. Sanjeevani literally means something that offers life. People generally believe that sanjeevani can bring a dead person to life. But in the epic Ramayana and Ramcharit Manas, Laxman became unconscious while fighting Meghnath, the eldest son of demon king Ravana. So it is obvious that sanjeevani can bring back a person from a comatose to a conscious state.
Exploratory journeys
About two decades ago, I climbed to Dronagiri village—named after the mountain Dronagiri, the mythical habitat of sanjeevani— in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand. The village is located more than 3,500 m above sea level in the world-famous Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (ndbr). The village is in the upper-most limit of any human habitation in the ndbr. In the evening, I almost fainted due to a severe headache. A woman, who gave us refuge at her house in Dronagiri, offered a small herb root to me. It tasted extremely bitter, but within 45 minutes my headache disappeared.
This story is from the October 1, 2016 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 1, 2016 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Pill That's Roiling US Drug Regulation
The hard right is challenging FDA's authority to regulate drugs with its lawsuit to ban America's most used abortion pill
TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
The young leaves of pilkhan free are a worthy alternative to leafy vegetables in the spring season
FAIR PRICE
Using a calculator, Uttar Pradesh scientifically fixes fee for transporting faecal sludge to treatment plants
THE FOREVER POLLUTANT
From production to usage to disposal, plastic is a threat to those who come in its contact SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH
Seeds from the past
For a decade,200 villages in Odisha have conserved and grown 190 indigenous rice and millet varieties with proven climate resilience
TESTING TIMES
While the world is trying to identify uniform tests to measure soil biodiversity, it still needs investment and infrastructure to make them available to all
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Soil health is typically measured by its nutrient content, by presence of elements like nitrogen and phosphorus. No country in the world measures it in terms of soil biodiversity-a counting of underground faunal populations and microorganisms.
PRIME TRIGGER
Heat stress dominates debate on the causes of a mysterious chronic kidney disease that continues to baffle health experts and is on the rise globally
Coral catastrophe
Consistent ocean heating puts global corals at risk of mass bleaching in 2024
CHIPKO A DISTANT MEMORY
Whenever a dictionary of green terms is written, no matter in what language, it will contain at least one Hindi word-Chipko, which means to hug.