age 
yielded this oil the subject of a somewhat confused paper, entitled 
‘Spikenard of the Ancients’ (1836), which I do not intend to 
discuss here, confining myself to Swinton’s information embodied 
therein. Swinton, like Maxwell, first became acquainted with the 
oil (which he says is called “ Rhonsee-ke-Tell”’ by the natives) as 
an effective remedy in severe attacks of rheumatism. He also 
stated “that although the plants are found in other parts of India 
as well as in Malvah, yet those which grow about the Jaum Ghaut 
are preferred, and gathered in the month of October, when the seeds 
forming the ears or spikes have become fully ripe. At that 
season, however, in the places where this gigantic grass is 
produced, the jungle fever is so prevalent that the peasantry 
who collect it will not expose their health . . . unless 
tempted by very highremuneration. . . .” Hatchett further adds, 
“Mr. Swinton was informed by them (the principal natives) that 
it has been prepared in and about Malvah from time immemorial, 
at first probably by the Parsees, although at present it is entirely 
in the hands of the Borahs, a very commercial people, forming a 
sect of Moslems, whose chief resides at Surat. The oil is 
obtained from the spikes which, when ripe, are cut with a portion 
of the stem about one foot in length, and are then subjected to 
distillation. Only a small comparative quantity of the oil is 
consumed by the natives, the greater part being now, as was the 
case in very remote times (according to tradition), sent as an 
article of commerce to Arabia.” Finally it is stated that “the : 
odour of the plant is so powerful, that although camels will eat 
almost any vegetable, yet they will not browse on this. ay 
Neither the production nor the export of the oil can, however, 
have reached any considerable dimensions, as Jacquemont, who, 
in the spring of 1832, visited Nalcha and Jaum, and gave a very 
full account of Malwa, does not mention the grass or the oil. 
_ The grass, it is true, might have escaped him, as at that season it 
must have all been dried up. 
How far there is any truth in the tradition that oil has been 
distilled from the Rusa grass ‘from time immemorial,’ we do not 
know. The authors of the Pharmacographia Indica (vol. iii., p. 558) 
merely suggest that “the industry commenced in the 18th century 
whilst Khandeish wasina flourishing condition underits Mahometan 
rulers.” However this may be, there is sufficient evidence that 
the grass must have been known to the Aryan peoples of India for 
a very long time. ‘ Rohisha,’ the Sanskrit equivalent of the Hindi 
‘Rusa,’ occurs in Susruta and in some of the earliest Sanskrit 
dictionaries. Another name in Sanskrit, evidently from the same 
root, is ‘Rosem.’ Variants of these terms are generally recognised 
vernacular names in the Hindi, Gujerati, and Mahrati dialects. 
Curiously enough, the name does not appear in the earlier Persian 
Pharmacopeeias, the first record of it ‘Rus’ being apparently in 
the Makhzan-el-Adwiyaht (1771). According to the authors 
of the Pharmacographia (vol. iii., p. 557), C. Martini is also “the 
Bhustrina or Bhutrina ‘earth grass’ of the Raja Nighanta,”’ 
and among the synonyms, which it bears, we may mention 
Gandha-Khéda and Gandha-irina ‘odorous grass,’ Su-rasa 
* Royle, Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine (1837), pp. 31-34, 82-83, 143. 
+ See Dymock, Veget. Mat. Med. Western India, ed, 2 (1885), p. 851. 
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