Patna, May 7 (PTI) The Bihar government has decided to display a medicinal plant, which locals believe to be the same “sanjeevani booti” that saved Lakshmana’s life in the Ramayana, in a biodiversity exhibition to be held in Chennai later this month.
The plant, ‘selaginella bryopteris’, found in abundance in Rohtas district of the state, has the properties to cure severe nervous system disorders, Bihar State Biodiversity Board Chairman DK Sinha told PTI.
The state government has also requested the Lucknow-based Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP) to determine the age of the giant “Pakad” tree in Sitamarhi district, under which, it is believed, Sita Devi rested on the way to Ayodhya after her marriage to Lord Rama.
The ancient tree, which is spread around an acre of land, has become a tourist attraction and pilgrimage site.
On the ‘sanjeevani booti’, Sinha said, “Since this plant has amazing healing properties, we have decided to send it for display at Chennai.” An exhibition will be organised in the southern city on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22.
Sinha said the “sanjeevi booti” plants of Rohtas district were mentioned in a research paper titled ‘Flora of British India’, prepared by botanist and explorer Sir J D Hooker in 1890. It has been kept in the Davis Library, the University of California, in the USA.
The plant, closest to the therapeutic “sanjeevani booti” mentioned in the Ramayana, is mainly found around Mani village of Rohtas district.
In the epic, Ravana’s son Meghnad shot an arrow toward Rama’s brother Lakshmana during a battle in Lanka and he fell unconscious to the ground. Hanuman was asked to fetch some medicinal plants from a hill in the Himalayas. Unable to identify them, he brought the entire hill and saved Lakshmana’s life.
The Bihar government has also urged the BSIP, an autonomous institute under the central government, to determine the age of the Pakad tree located in Panth-Pakad village in Sitamarhi district and that of a vast banyan tree inside the compound of a major private company in Munger district.
“We have requested BSIP to determine the age of these two trees as it is believed that these trees are ancient”, Additional Chief Secretary of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change department, Dipak Kumar Singh, told PTI.
All arrangements have been made to protect these two trees, he said.
“According to folklore, the giant Pakad tree of Panth-Pakad village is the same tree under which Sita Devi had rested while heading towards Ayodhya after her marriage,” said Sudhir Kumar Karn, Forest Conservator, Muzaffarpur range that includes Sitamarhi district.
People of the entire Mithila region which comprises parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and districts of the eastern Terai of Nepal pray here, Karn said. PTI PKD NN NN
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