Sanjeevani () is a medicinal herb featured in the Hindu epic

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages e ...

Literature

The herb is mentioned in the

when

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. ...

's son, Indrajita, hurls a powerful weapon at

Lakshmana Lakshmana ( sa, लक्ष्मण, lit=the fortunate one, translit=Lakṣmaṇa), also spelled as Laxmana, is the younger brother of Rama and his loyalist in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He bears the epithets of Saumitra () and Ramanuja () ...

. Lakshmana is badly wounded, and is nearly killed by this attack. In the

Kamba Ramayanam ''Ramavataram'', popularly referred to as ''Kamba Ramayanam'', is a Tamil epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's ''Ramayana'' (which is in Sanskrit), the story describes the life of Kin ...

Jambavan Jambavan (Devanagari: जाम्बवान्), also known as Jambavanta (Devanagari: जाम्बवत्), is the king of the bears in Hindu texts. He emerges out of the mouth of Brahma when the creator deity yawns. He assists the Ra ...

instructs

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and ...

to fetch the sanjeevani herb by flying to the northern side of

Mount Meru Mount Meru ( Sanskrit/ Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and sp ...

, where he would find the Nīla-mahāgiri, the great blue mountain, beyond which he would find the Ṛṣabhādri, the ox-shaped mountain, with two peaks. This mountain is described to bear four medicinal herbs, including sanjeevani. Unable to identify the herb, and due to time being of the essence, Hanuman lifts the entire mountain and carries it to the unconscious Lakshmana, who is healed after its application.

Identification

The mountain of herbs is identified as the Valley of Flowers near Badri in Uttarakhand on the slopes of the Himalayas. Several plants have been proposed as possible candidates for the sanjeevani plant, including: '' Selaginella bryopteris'', '' Dendrobium plicatile'' (synonym ''Desmotrichum fimbriatum''), ''

Cressa cretica ''Cressa cretica'' is a species of flowering plant in the morning glory family. It is found in northern and central Africa, southern Europe and western Asia, as well as parts of southeastern Asia and Australia. It has long been used in tradition ...

'', and others. A search of ancient texts at CSIR laboratories did not reveal any plant that can be definitively confirmed as sanjeevani. In certain texts it is written that sanjeevani glows in the dark. The herb, believed in

Ayurvedic Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repor ...

medicine to have medicinal properties, has been searched for unsuccessfully for centuries, up to modern times. The Himalayan state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...

in northern India committed an initial 250m rupees (£2.8m) of state money to search for ''sanjeevani Booti'' starting in August 2016. The search was focused on the Dronagiri range of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over ...

near the Chinese border. The

mentions a mountain believed to refer to the Dronagiri range, where the magical herb is supposed to grow. Uttarakhand established a Department of

AYUSH The Ministry of Ayush, a ministry of the Government of India, is responsible for developing education, research and propagation of traditional medicine systems in India. Ayush is a name devised from the names of the alternative healthcare syst ...

in November 2014.

References

{{reflist Plants in Hinduism Mythological plants Plants used in Ayurveda