Plants personify the divine— The Rig Veda (X.97) Trees and plants have long been held sacred to communities the world over. In India, we have a whole variety of flora that feature in our myths, our epics, our rituals, our worship and our daily life. There is the pipal, under which the Buddha meditated on the path to enlightenment; the banyan, in whose branches hide spirits; the ashoka, in a grove of which Sita sheltered when she was Ravana’s prisoner; the tulsi, without which no Hindu house is considered complete; the bilva, with whose leaves it is possible to inadvertently worship Shiva. Before temples were constructed, trees were open-air shrines sheltering the deity, and many were symbolic of the Buddha himself. Sacred Plants of India systematically lays out the sociocultural roots of the various plants found in the Indian subcontinent, while also asserting their ecological importance to our survival. Informative, thought-provoking and meticulously researched, this book draws on mythology and botany and the ancient religious traditions of India to assemble a detailed and fascinating account of India’s flora.

History of Agriculture in India (up to c.1200 AD), Part 1, reconstructs the evolution of agriculture in India up to c.1200AD. It is a synthesis and summation of existing knowledge on the history of agriculture in ancient India on the combined bases of archaeological and literary sources against the backdrop of Asian history in general. Besides summing up the existing knowledge, it opens new vistas for further research on many debated issues in the history of agriculture in ancient India. The volume addresses the vexed and controversial questions on the origin, antiquity and sources of Indian agricultural history. Based on researches from sites of Vindhya, Ganga Region, plant remains, agricultural tools, pots, dental pathology, and settlement remains, it is an informed and highly researched work on the origin and antiquity of cultivation in India. For a historical study of agriculture, Pali, Sangam. Sanskrit and the Graeco-Roman literatures have been utilized. Art and literary sources have also been used to reconstruct history.

This volume examines the multifarious dimensions that constitute the workings of the Hindu temple as an architectural and urban built form. Eleven chapters reflect on Hindu temples from multiple standpoints - tracing their elusive evolution from wayside shrines as well as canonization into classical objects; questioning the role of treatises containing their building rules; analyzing their prescribed proportions and orders; examining their presence in, and as, larger sacred habitats and ritua...

‘FAMOUS TREES OF INDIA’ is my first book in English. It is a collection of articles written by me in the past 11 years. I have covered the trees as described in the Vedas, Upanishads, classical Sanskrit and Tamil literature, folk tales and temple Sthala Puranas. I have got more articles in my blog which would be published as second part. I have lifted some parts from some books for adding my comments, particularly to compare them with the available materials in Tamil and Sanskrit. I thank those original contributors. Hindus considered plants as Gods or the divine representatives on earth. The emphasis is on optimum use of them without destroying them completely. It is also insisted that it is our duty to raise and preserve them for posterity.

The vibrant tradition of Temple decoration in India.