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Iconic Plants of India (Set of 2 Volumes)

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Iconic Plants of India (Set of 2 Volumes)

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Specifications

	Publisher: Notion Press
	Author P. N. Ravindran
	Language: English
	Pages: 1060
	Cover: PAPERBACK
	8x5 inch
	Weight 980 gm
	Edition: 2025
	ISBN: Vol- I: 9798896324706Vol- II: 9798896324713
	HBJ866

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	Usually ships in 7 days
	Returns and Exchanges accepted within 7 days
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Book Description

About the Book Dr. P.N. Ravindran, an authority on Indian Heritage Plants, wrote an exceptional, 'not-to-be-forgotten book on the ICONIC PLANTS OF INDIA after his debut books Lotus the Cosmic Flower & Sacred and Ritual Plants of India.

This book "The Iconic Plants of India offers a unique journey through the myths, legends, lore, symbolism, and traditions associated with 20 plants (trees and herbs) that have achieved iconic status in the socio-religious and socio-cultural life of India from the ancient Vedic and epic times. Some of them are valuable offerings to deities, some are worshipped, and some even attained the status of deities or substitutes for deities. The introductory chapter on trees and tree worship will act as a springboard for the readers to move through this noteworthy 2-volume set.

The book delves into the significant role of plants in shaping the Indian culture, from the Vedic and the later Puranic periods. It explores how the protagonists of Indian culture and philosophy chose a forest life, where plants and groves became part of their belief systems. The Vedic culture and the ritual practices that form the foundations of Hinduism originated and evolved in the forests. During the Vedic, Puranic, and post-Puranic periods, people held some trees and herbs as particularly sacred, and specific symbolism, philosophy, and traditions developed associated with such plants. For the readers, this book will be a window to peep into the past life of our distant forefathers living in unison with nature and help them glimpse the roles of plants and plant life in shaping their thoughts and beliefs.

About the Author Ravindran PN/Dr was a member of the Indian Agricultural Research Service (ICAR-IARS). He is best known for contributing to Spice's research, development, and documentation. He functioned as Director of ICAR-IISR; National Coordinator for Spices Research (ICAR), founder-director of the Centre for Medicinal Plants Research (CMPR), Kottakkal, and Research Advisor for Tata Global Beverages, Bangalore. Ravindran has authored many globally acclaimed books, such as Black Pepper (Harwood Academic, now CRC Press), Cardamom-the genus Elettaria (Taylor & Francis), Cinnamon & Cassia, the Genus Cinnamomum (CRC Press), Ginger, the genus Zingiber (CRC Press), Turmeric-the genus Curcuma (CRC Press) as well as a database volume on Indian spices, Advances in Spices Research. He is the author of the monumental Encyclopaedia of Herbs and Spices (2-volume set, CABI, UK), the most authoritative book on spices. Dr Ravindran is the Chief Editor of the recently published 5-volume, 4400-page-magnum opus, Handbook of Indian Spices - 75 Years of Research and Development (2024) published by Springer Nature.

Preface The present book, Iconic Plants of India, offers a unique T journey through the myths, legends, lore, symbolism, and traditions associated with 20 plants (trees and herbs) that have achieved iconic status. These 20 plants have influenced the socio-religious lives of the people of India from the Vedic or epic time onwards. Some of them are valuable offerings to deities; some are worshipped, and some even attained the status of deities or substitutes for deities.

The book delves into the significant role of plants in the development of Indian culture, from the Vedic and Puranic periods. It explores how the protagonists of Indian culture and philosophy chose a forest life, where plants and groves became part of their belief systems. The Vedic culture and the ritual practices that form the foundations of Hinduism originated and evolved in the forests.

Acknowledgements This book results from many years of study on the diverse aspects associated with certain sacred and ritual plants of India and other South Asian countries. The book contains information collected and collated from the writings of many ancient and modern thinkers and writers from the Vedic and epic times. I have also quoted liberally from diverse sources, from past and present writers and thinkers' writings. The sources of all such quotes are included in the list of citations. I salute them all and acknowledge with humility the help, knowledge, and wisdom gained from all of them. The present book is an offshoot of an earlier book by me, titled Sacred and Ritual Plants of India, published by Notion Press (2020). Twenty of the most important sacred plants that have attained iconic status are included in this volume. The matter is significantly expanded, embellished, and updated in this volume. I thank the Notion press for making use of the earlier publication as the basis for this first and the only book on the iconic plants of India.

Introduction In the Earth's geological history, there are four periods when forests thrived on this planet. The first was the Carboniferous, ca. 350 million years ago, when land vertebrates started roaming the Earth. The Carboniferous or coal forests, consisting of giant club mosses, tree ferns, great horsetails, and towering trees, occupied the land. The second was the Jurassic, 170 million years ago, when dinosaurs dominated the planet. The forests were mainly composed of cycads, conifers, and ferns. The third, the Eocene epoch, occurred 60 million years ago and witnessed the first primitive mammals. During the early-middle Eocene, forests covered most of the Earth, including the poles. Tropical forests extended across much of modern Africa, South America, Central America, India, Southeast Asia, and China. The last, the Holocene epoch, which began some 500,000 years ago following the ice age, ushered in modern humanity. Early humans and related species had to sustain themselves based on the flora and fauna that existed then. The trees fascinated them, as they provided food and sheltered them from the predatory animals and poisonous snakes that inhabited the forest floor. Ten thousand years ago, forests occupied most of the land mass of the Indian subcontinent. Early human civilization originated in these forests, along the banks of the rivers in the North Indian River valleys.

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