Medicinal Flora of Garhwal Himalayas (An Old and Rare Book)

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It is an accomplished fact that the Himalaya is the "treasure-house" or the natural- wealth particularly of the medicinal herbs which are the basis of the Ayurvedic studies. Gandhamadan, Drounagiri, Sumeru-parvat etc. are some of the famous peaks of the Central- Himalaya which store some of the Medicinal herbs of value like Sanjeevani, Vishalakarni, Ajruha, Padma, SomLata, Astavarga etc. Besides the medicinal plants, Himalayan mountain is also an excellent source of several mineral elements and the only source of the 'musk' ("KASTOORI") obtained from "musk-deers" found in this region. The present study of the Garhwal region of the Central Himalaya is, therefore, of considerable importance.

।। हिमवानौवधभूमिनांश्रेष्ठभू ॥ चरक संहिता "चिकित्सा स्थान"

Caraka has also described the Himalayas as the best habitat for medicinal plant.

'AUSHADHINAMPARABHUMI HIMVANSHAILSATAMA' (Ch.ch.II)

औषधीनां पशभूमि हिमवान् शैलसत्तमः ॥ ॥ चरक ॥

The Himalayan herbs are useful for longivity and rejuvenation.

In the 'Samhita' period the Himalayan region was also considered to be most suitable place for organising seminars on Ayurveda for scholarly deliberations and adoptions of the best after due discussion. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Govt. of India has kept alive the tradition of Ayurveda.

The Indian System of medicine, i.e. the Ayurveda, was developed by ancient sages and saints. They generally resided in the interior of the forests surrounded by lust vegetation, for undisturbed meditation; and also to discover useful drug plants growing all around them. No wonder, they might have propagated many of them, as some are even today cultivated near temples, perhaps being very important from medicinal point of view. These ancient abodes of 'Rishis' had, in course of time, become important centres of pilgrimage. Therefore, it would be interesting and worthwhile to study these plants growing around such centres as the usefulness of them is recognised even today.

The efficacy of Indian medicinal plants particularly of those growing in temperate and alpine Himalayas is fairly well known. The Ayurveda has included in its materia medica more than three thousand of vegetable drugs and quite a large number of them occur in the Himalayas.

The several Indian and European workers have conducted botanical surveys in this region, however, more serious survey works have been conducted by the parties of the Botanical survey of India, Northern Circle, Dehradun; National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow and the Survey of Medicinal plants Unit at Gurukul Kangri, Hardwar (established during 1962 under I.S.M. Department, Govt. of India). The Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy, New Delhi (established during 1969) has been organised to promote scientific studies on the Indian Medicines (at present named as Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha).

Himalaya is the "treasure house" of natural wealth, particularly of medicinal herbs, which take a lion's share in the rich materia medica of Ayurveda.

Many famous herbal drugs of today would have gone in for wider usage decades ago, if folklore and tradition about them had been taken more seriously, since the properties of many of these plants were known in some form or the other to the primitive man. The study of the intrinsic relationship of the homosapien to plants, form the subject matter of Ethnobotany; if one goes through carefully the science of Ayurveda, in one perspective, one would find exactly a similar relationship between man and medicinal plants.

The urge and need to find out a broad based, inexpensive and alternate health care system and the intensive search for nutritional supplements have kindled an interest and promoted studies on traditional medicinal plants in several underdeveloped countries of the world. It is a well known fact that in all the programmes like Medico-botanical surveys, identification, cultivation of medicinal herbs, parmacognostic, Phytochemical, pharmacological, toxicological and chemical studies of herbs the mein thrust is the identification of a therapeutically effective drug. The efficiency of Indian medical plants particularly of those growing in temperate and alpine Himalayas is fairly well known. Ayurveda has included in its materia more than three thousand vegetable drugs and quite a large number of them are found in the Himalayas."

It is essential also to compile the regional medicinal plant flora of areas where there is a severe threat to natural vegetation owing to human inhabitation. In that sense, knowledge of the flora of medicinal herbs in Garhwal regions is also equally important. Several Indian and European experts have conducted botanical surveys in this region and more intensive work was carried out by the B.S.I., F.R.I., Dehradun and N.B.R.I., Lucknow. But these surveys have not been particularly directed towards medicinal plants used in Ayurveda.

This book is an extremely useful addition giving a concise account of the plants of medicinal importance found in Garhwal region. The region includes five hill districts of Uttar Pradesh viz. Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarkashi, Chamoli. Gangotri, Yamnotary, Badrinath, Kedarnath and other centres of pilgrimage situated in this region have always been the symbols of the culture and traditions of India. This area of several thousand sq. miles, has from the time immemorial, lent glory and dignity to the image of India.

The gigantic mountain chain of Himalayas spreading from East to West in the North has a great hold on the cultural life of the people of India. The perennial streams which determine the whole economy of villages of the country, have their origins in Himalayas. The sky-scaling snowy peaks, valleys full of green vegetation, the forest and the mineral wealth has always been great attractions to the pilgrims, tourists and the traders. Since the earliest days of our known history, Himalaya has cast on our people a peculiar spell mixed with awe and wonder. People through ages have gone there for solace, strength and inspiration (whole local inhabitants) lived a simple pastoral life of contentment and peace. Kalidas, the great poet of our ancient scriptures, has described the Himalaya in Kumarsambhava as the soul of God full of mineral and metalic wealth.

The region as a whole enfolds a great variety of land and life differing from one part to the other, largely due to the barriers created by the high altitude mountains and the deep river valleys. On the basis of the heterogenety of the geographic conditions and the cultural life prevailing, the ancient writers and the poets divided it into the five major parts as:

Nepal, Kurmachal, Kedarkhand, Jullandhar and Kashmir.

The Himalayan region of Uttarakhand known as the Central Himalaya, represents the combined areas of the above mentioned Kurmachal and the Kedarkhand presently known as Kumaon and Garhwal respectively. It is situated between the rivers Jamuna and Kali and is bounded by Tibet in the North Nepal in the East, Tarai area of Uttar Pradesh in the South and Himachal Pradesh in the West. It lies between 280 45' E to 810 10' E and comprises an area of 19263 sq. miles with a population of about 40,00,000 people. The Region includes eight Hill Districts of Uttar Pradesh viz. Dehradun, Uttarakashi, Tehri-Garhwal, Garhwal, Chamoli, Almora, Nainital and Pithoragarh. Previously there are only five Districts, four being in the Kumaon divisions and the fifth Dehradun district in Meerut Region. But the possible threat by China from the North, after her annexation of Tibet in 1959, necessiated the changes in the administrative set-up of this Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh, which subsequently resulted in the creation of the three Border Districts administratively integrated into a separate Unit in 1960 came into existence under the name of Uttarakhand and is since then known as the region of Uttarakhand. But this distinction of the names and their political boundaries is only limited to the Government papers, since for the people of this area and those coming from outside, the whole region down from Hardwar upto Badrinath and Yamunotri to Kailash Mansarover is Uttarakhand and is considered to be the most sacret part of this Himalayan region.