Hortus Malabaricus
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''Hortus Malabaricus'' (meaning "Garden of Malabar") is a 17th-century botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of flora of the
Malabar coast The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing m ...
(the Western Ghats district, a region principally covering the areas which are presently in the
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n states of
Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
,
Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
and
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
)). It was compiled by Hendrik van Rheede, the Governor of
Dutch Malabar Dutch Malabar (Dutch; ''Nederlandse Malabar''. Malayalam; ''ഡച്ച് മലബാർ''.) also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was the title of a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between ...
from 1669 to 1676.
Itty Achudan Itty Achudan (forename also spelt as ''Itty Achuden ''in English, and ''Itti Achudem'' in Latin), known to have lived during the second half of the 17th century, was a distinguished herbalist, belonging to an Ezhava family of physicians in Keral ...
, a distinguished herbalist from the ancient traditional
Ezhava The Ezhavas () are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the population and were reported to be the largest Hindu community. They are also known as ''Ilhava'' ...
physicians of Kerala, was Van Rheede's key informant who disclosed the Ayurvedic
traditional knowledge Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge generally refer to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities. According to the World Intellectual Property Organ ...
about the plants of Malabar to him. Hortus Malabaricus was published posthumously in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
between 1678 and 1693. English and Malayalam translations of Hortus Malabaricus were published by University of Kerala in 2003 and 2008 respectively, which was largely due to the efforts of Professor K. S. Manilal, an Emeritus of the University of Calicut who devoted over 35 years of his life to research for the translation and annotation work of the original text of Hortus Malabaricus in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
.


History and Significance

Richard H. Grove, in his book 'Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins', states that Itty Achuthan and his team selected the plants which were to be drawn and included in Hortus Malabaricus, with accurate identification and mentioning of vernacular (local) name of the plants. Itty Achuthan also disclosed the medicinal and other uses of the plants which was known to him from his own experience as a herbal physician and from the 'palmleaf scripture' carried by his family as 'wealth of knowlede'. Achudan dictated the material, in his native
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
language, which was then translated into Latin. Hortus Malabaricus was compiled over a period of nearly 30 years and published in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
during 1678–1693. The book was conceived by Hendrik van Rheede, who was the Governor of
Dutch Malabar Dutch Malabar (Dutch; ''Nederlandse Malabar''. Malayalam; ''ഡച്ച് മലബാർ''.) also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was the title of a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between ...
at the time. In the research paper published in the journal Global Histories, entitled 'Plants, Power and Knowledge: An Exploration of the Imperial Networks and the Circuits of Botanical Knowledge and Medical Systems on the Western Coast of India Against the Backdrop of European Expansionism', Malavika Binny states that Kerala had medical traditions that existed even prior to Ayurvedic tradition. As per the author, Ezhava Tradition of Healing Practices or 'Ezhava vaidyam',as it is called, was prominent among other medical traditions that existed in Kerala which involved a considerable contribution from Buddhism which was a major force from the sixth century to about the eleventh century. This Buddhist tradition of treatment of diseases using plants and the knowledge of the indigenous plants preserved by the Ezhavas was exploited by the European endeavour as suggested by the inclusion of Itty Achuden in the compilation of Hortus Malabaricus which is basically an ethno-botanical treatise on the flora of Malabar.


About

The ''Hortus Malabaricus'' comprises 12 volumes of about 500 pages each, with 794 copper plate engravings. The first of the 12 volumes of the book was published in 1678, and the last in 1693. It is believed to be one of the earliest printed works on the flora of
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
and the
tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
, after Garcia de Orta's " Colóquios dos simples e drogas he cousas medicinais da Índia" (Goa, 1563) and the most comprehensive among them. Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the
Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing m ...
which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats from
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
to
Kanyakumari Kanniyakumari (; , referring to Devi Kanya Kumari), also known as Cape Comorin, is a city in Kanniyakumari district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent and the southernmost city in mainland Ind ...
. The book gives a detailed account of the flora of
Malabar district Malabar District, also known as Malayalam District, was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792-1800) and Madras Presidency (1800-1947) in British India, and independent India's Madras State (19 ...
, along with sketches and detailed descriptions. Over 742 different plants and their
indigenous science Indigenous science is the application and intersection of indigenous knowledge and science. In ecology this is sometimes termed traditional ecological knowledge. Traditional and scientific Indigenous knowledge and experiences have traditionally ...
are considered in the book. The book also employs a system of classification based on the traditions adopted by the practitioners of that region. Apart from Latin, the plant names have been recorded in other languages including
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
, Konkani,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
, English. The comprehensive nature of the book is noted by T. Whitehouse in his 1859 ''Historical Notices of Cochin on the Malabar Coast'': : Several species of plants have their type illustrations in this work.


Contributors

Hendrik van Rheede is said to have taken a keen personal interest in the compilation of the ''Hortus Malabaricus''. The work was edited by a team of nearly a hundred including: * The physician Itti Achuden and the Brahmins Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka pandit and Appu Bhat. * Professors of medicine and botany * Amateur botanists, such as Arnold Seyn, Theodore Jansson of Almeloveen, Paul Hermann, Johannes Munnicks, Joannes Commelinus, Abraham a Poot. *Technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
officials, and clergymen including D. John Caesarius and the
Discalced Carmelite The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...
Mathaeus of Mount Carmel & St. Joseph’s Monastery (currently Varapuzha Basilica Church) at Verapoly. The ethno-medical information presented in Hortus Malabaricus was culled from palm leaf manuscripts by Itty Achuden, who dictated the material in Malayalam, which was then scrutinized by three Konkani Brahmanasgymnosophist priest-physicians (referred to in the text as ‘brahmins’) Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka Pandit and Appu Bhat, followed by a process of thorough verification, discussion with other scholars and general agreement. Volume 1 of the ''Hortus Malabaricus'' contains a testimony by Achudan, dated 20 April 1675, which can be translated as follows: "As intended by the hereditary Malayalam physician born in Kollatt house in Kodakarapalli village of Karappuram and residing therein. Having come to Cochin fort on the orders of Coomodore Van Rheede and having examined the trees and seed varieties described in this book, the descriptions of and the treatment with each of them known from our books and classified as in the illustrations and notes and explained in detail to Emmanuel Carnerio, the interpreter of the Honourable Company, clearing doubts thus supplied the information as accepted without any doubt by this gentlemen of Malabar". Many of the descriptions that accompany each plant in Hortus Malabaricus thus remains as cultural storehouse of the incidental sociological situation and social affinities carried by the flora of those times. This was one among the true contributions of Itty Achthan to knowledge base created and contained by Hortus Malabaricus. It is also important to note that at
University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...
, Arnold Syen and Jan Commelin tried to follow the order and classification of the plants as prescribed by Itty Achuthan and his fellow Ezhava physicians, though Europe had its own standard system of classification of plants. Van Rheede was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling
Zamorin The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edited by ...
of
Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...
.Retrieved on 7 June 2021
Horthoos Malabaricus: Charithravum Sasthravum- book by N.S.Arunkumar, published by Kerala State Institute of Languages, at Retrieved on 7 June 2021. Professor K. S. Manilal (b. 1938) has worked over 35 years on the research, translations, and annotations of the ''Hortus Malabaricus''. The effort has brought the main contents of the book to Malayalam and English-speaking scholars. It had largely remained inaccessible previously to them, because of the entire text being untranslated into the
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
and
Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
.


See also

*
Flora of Kerala Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...
*
Medicinal plant Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against her ...
*
Plants used in Ayurveda Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...
*
Geography of Kerala Kerala (38,863 km2; 1.18% of India's land) is situated between the Lakshadweep Sea to the west and the Western Ghats to the east. Kerala's coast runs some 580 km in length, while the state itself varies between 35–120 km in wi ...
*
History of Kerala The term ''Kerala'' was first epigraphically recorded as ''Keralaputra'' ( Cheras) in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka of Magadha. It was mentioned as one of four independent kingdoms in southern India during Ashoka ...


References


External links

{{commons category Who wrote hortus malabaricus-www.kottakkalayuveda.com/campaign.php * Archive.org Review of references to Hortus Malabaricus
Indiasocial.org: "325-year-old Dutch work on Kerala's plant wealth revived"
* ttp://srimad.org/wp/?p=430: "Memorial to Ranga Bhat Vinayak Pandit and Appu Bhat at Kochi" Flora of Kerala Botany books Florae (publication) Herbals Plants used in Ayurveda 17th-century Latin books 17th-century Indian books Botany in Asia Dutch non-fiction books History of Kerala Flora of the Western Ghats Ayurveda in Kerala Biology and natural history in the Dutch Republic