XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 



This plant has not yet been satisfactorily identified. The Indo- 

 Aryans used the plant for sacrificial purposes and its juice is 

 described in the ancient Aryan literature as ( a stimulating 

 beverage. The word 3TT^fa (oshaclhi) literally means heat-pro- 

 ducer. When the Indo-Aryans came to use the Soma plant 

 for therapeutical purposes, they came to possess a knowledge 

 of the medicinal properties and uses of herbs and plants. 

 Hence, Oshadhi (^rrefa) applied to all herbs and medicinal 

 plants. 



The knowledge of medicinal plants must have been accumu- 

 lated in the course of many centuries. In bis work on Plants and 

 Animals under Domestication, Darwin says ; — " From innumer- 

 able experiments made through dire necessity by the savages of 

 every land, with the result handed down by tradition, the 

 nutritious, stimulating and medicinal properties of the most 

 unpromising plants were probably first discovered."* 



The " doctrine of signatures " would also account for the use 

 of several plants as medicinal agents. This doctrine is based 

 on the resemblance in shape or color of some product of the 

 vegetable kingdom with some organ in the animal economy. 

 In the ignorance of anatomical or physiological data to work 

 upon the primitive man thinks that these articles possess some 

 action on those organs which they resemble in shape, size or 

 color. Again, another reason for the extensive use of vegetable 

 drugs may be the fact that plants are everywhere at hand, their 

 number is very great and their forms are distinct and peculiar 

 and thus are procured without trouble. 



It is greatly to the credit of the people of India that they 

 were acquainted with a far larger number of medicinal plants 



" Waters bring to perfection all disease,— dispelling medicaments for (the 

 good of) my body, that I may long behold the sun. 



" Waters take away whatever sin has been (found) in me, whether I have 

 (knowingly) done wrong or have pronounced imprecations (against holy men) 

 or (have spoken) untruth. 



"I have this day entered into the waters: we have mingled with their 

 essence." (Wilson's translation of the Rig. Veda. Vol. I. p. 57). 



"Thou, Soma, fond of praise, the lord of plants, art life to us." 



"Be unto us, Soma, the bestower of wealth, the remover of disease, 

 Exulting Soma ! increase with all twining plants." (Ibid p : £34). 



* Vol. I, p. 325. 



