Sacred Plants and Their Medicinal Uses

by Anil Kumar Dhiman

Tree or Plant worship or the worship using plant’s parts is one of the earliest forms of religions in ancient world. It was through the worship of the plants or trees that man attempted to approach and propitiate the God. Before man developed agriculture, he lived mostly on fruits and nuts of the plants. He used their implements for peace and war. It was from wood that he obtained fire to cook his food and to warm his cave dwellings apart from the beauty of their flowers, which excited his imagination. It was beneficial influence of the trees that prompted our remote ancestors to worship them. The earliest form of worship was probably the veneration of the Mother Goddess, the Earth Mother. Fertility, creation and the world of plants and animals were her blessings to her devotees. The worship of the tree would have originated somewhere at this time as the adoration of her creative abilities, symbolizing fertility so essential to the survival of early people.

Tree worship is found in various societies world over, especially in India. Besides, there is a belief that the plants, which are sacred or being worshipped that have the medicinal potential too. The present book on ‘Sacred Plants and their Medicinal Uses’ is an attempt to provide a comprehensive account on some of the important plants, which are not only being used in sacrificial rites and rituals dealing with cultural heritage, festivals and religious ceremonies standing from birth till death but also in medicine, particularly in India. It is hoped that this book will be useful for Research Workers working in the field of Ancient History, Ancient Literature, Botany and the Medical Sciences besides, the general laymen interested in the sacred uses of plants.

About the Author:

Dr. Anil Kumar Dhiman (born in 1965), is M.Sc., Ph. D. (Botany), M.A. (Pol. Science), B.Ed., M.L.I.Sc., PGDCA and the Ayurveda Ratan. His Doctorate work is based on the Medicinal Flora of Haridwar, which contains information on ethnomedicinal and ethnobotanical uses of the plants. Presently, he is working as Information Scientist in the library of Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar (U.A.). He has taught Botany in Botany Department, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar (U.A.) during 1995-96 under distance education programme and also worked as Counsellor of Library Science for Haridwar Chapter of U.P. Rajrishi Open University, Allahabad for two years 2000 and 2001.

Presently, he is Honorary Lecturer at Library Science Training, Roorkee and teaching Library Science to the students of Certificate Course of Library Science. He is elected Fellow of Society of Ethnobotanists, Lucknow (India) and Fellow of United Writer Association of India, and life member of several professional societies viz., Academy of Plant Sciences of India (Muzaffarnagar), Indian Botanical Society, Meerut (India), Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centers (Calcutta), Indian Association of Teachers of Library of Information Science, Indian Library Association, Society of Ethnobotanists, Lucknow, Uttaranchal Library Association (Dehradun) and Uttre Pradesh Library Association, (Lucknow). He has nine book to his credit; three in Botany and six in Library Science besides, about more than fifty papers in both fields of his study. He has attended various national seminars and conference and also had been the member of organizing name has been referred in various directories of national and international fames. He is also awarded with the APSI Gold Medal and Young Scientist Award 1999.