Bimalda Very intersting
But did not tell us why you started with the word "karnikar" Cassia fistula flowers are not scented .. and I agree with you, Karnikar is most likely Cassia fistula as per Kalidas 's writings and Ramayana but in Aryurvedic leterature such as Bhavprakash Nghantu there is no doubt is cassia fistula/ amaltas... This is such an inspiring story of a citizen naturalist 's painstaking inquiry into id of trees named in ancient Sanskrt literature Usha di On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 12:40 PM, Bimal Sar kar <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Friend, > During 1981-1984 I was at Pachmarhi. My friend Prabhat > Kumar used to stay at a cottage called Bedi Banglow. On the right side of > the entry to that house there used to be a big tree with large sweet > scented flowers. > To find out the identity of this tree I consulted books in the library of > AEC Training college and centre ( this library is having rich collection of > books on all subjects ). D V Cowen's Flowering Trees and Shrubs of India ( > sixth edition ,1984 ) has hand drawn picture of the flower with leaves, and > as per that book the scientific name of KARNIKAR is Pterospermum > acerifolium. For me it became the Scientific identity of KARNIKAR, till the > time My friend Prof. Suhas Majumdar of Presidency College ,Kolkata told me > that the description of KARNIKAR by Kalidas does not match with > Pterospermum acerifolium( while walking on the bank of the Ganges near > Mangal Pande Ghat, I showed him the tree which I knew as KARNIKAR.He told > me that tree was MUCHKUNDA ( in Bangla ), and started reciting from Kalidas > and told me that MUCHKUNDA can not be KARNIKAR. ). So my search started.I > referred many books but according to all of them KARNIKAR IS Pterospermum > acerifolium . I me Dr S K Jain of Botanical Survey of India ,in his office > at Lucknow and discussed the subject with him.He told me that a botanist > may not be that keen to know the sanskrit name of a particular species. > While going through a book by Shibkali Bhattacharya ( title of the > book,CHIRANJIB BANOUSHADHI ),I found him stating Cassia fistula as > KARNIKAR. I brought it to the notice of Prof Majumdar and wanted to know > whether this tree fits into the description of KARNIKAR by Kalidas.His > answer was affirmative. Now i had two scientific names for KARNIKAR. In > 1994 I was going through a translated version of Valmiki Ramayan and found > mention of KARNIKAR along with some 140 or so distinct names of plants. I > got interested and bought Valmiki Ramayan ( Gita Press ,Gorakhpur ). In > that book I found an excellent description of KARNIKAR (Kishkindha Kand, > Pratham Sarg, Shlok 21 ). He says, " look at the KARNIKAR in full > bloom,they are looking as if a man in golden ornaments and putting on > yellow garments." Such a good observer was poet Valmiki. For me the > identity of KARNIKAR is settled . It is Cassia fistula. Attaching one image > of Cassia fistula and an image of Pterospermum acerifolium. Reader can draw > his own conclusion. > Regards, > Bimal > -- Usha di =========== -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
