PIEKOtAKPU SANTAUNtrS. 155 



raujn in Bengali, are said to resemble those of the seeds of 

 Pong ami a glabfa. Their antiperiodic virtuoB were not known to 

 Sanskrit writers. 



PTEROCARPUS SANTAL1XUS, Linn. 



a 



Sans. ^fft^^, Uaklachaudana. 

 Vcrn. liaktar/caudan, Beng, Ldlthandan, Hind, 



rHB Pterocarpus Sautalivns is indigenous to the Indian Penin- 

 sula and is chiefly of importance from its yielding the red dye- 

 wood known as red saunders, largd quantities of which are 

 annually exported from India. Sanskrit writers describe several 

 varieties of sandal or chandana. Of these srikhanda or white, 

 pituchandana or yellow, and rdktachandana or red, sandal wood are 

 best known. The first two varieties are founded on the difference 

 in the shades of the colour of the wood of Santalum album. It 

 has been a question however how the wood of Flerocarpns 

 santaUnus, which is nearly inodorous, came to be called by the 

 name of raktachandana in Sanskrit and the vernaculars of India. 

 I am inclined to think that the name is owing to the similarity in 

 the uses to which the Hindus put both these articles. Both 

 sandal wood and red sandal wood are rubbed on a piece of stone 

 with water, and the emulsions are used for painting the body 

 after bathing and in religious services. 



Red sandal wood is described as an astringent tonic. It enters 

 into the composition of numerous prescriptions of an astringent 

 character and of cooling external applications for inflammation, 

 headache, etc., 1 but is seldom used alone. It is also much used 

 as a coloring agent in the preparation of medicated oils. 



The Pterocarpus marsupium or Indian kino tree is translated 

 into "p t sal" Beng. by Roxburgh. The Sanskrit term Pilasdla 

 is however a synonym of Amu a ( Termiaalia tumeniosa ). I have 

 not found any notice of the Indian kino tree in Sanskrit workh. 

 It was probably unknown to the ancients. 



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fasnq^ 



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