उपवनविनोद (आचार्य शार्ङ्गधर - वृक्षायुर्वेद, भू-जल संधान एवं उद्यान-विज्ञान सटीक)

FOREWORD
The Upavana-Vinoda, which forms but a small chapter of Śārṅga-
dhara's encyclopædic work, is an interesting Sanskrit treatise on
Arbori-Horticulture. This treatise represents only a branch of a much
larger science the name of which alone lingers in the main heading of
the chapter—Atha Vṛkṣāyurvedaḥ. If, as we are bound to assume,
the Upavana-Vinoda be only a branch of Vṛkṣāyurveda, it necessarily
follows that the researchers are yet to look out for other branches
of a larger body of knowledge comprehended under Vṛkṣāyurveda.
This is not however to claim that this Science reached its fullness
all at once. The data which may be gathered from the
available sources of information rather go to indicate that the
development of the knowledge of botany had proceeded on
different lines before it was possible to think of compiling a
Saṁhitā embodying the important results of observations and experi-
ments carried on through many centuries. The various departments
of Botany must have developed under such a common name as
Vṛkṣāyurveda. As Professor Girija Prasanna Majumdar has ably
shown in his informative little book, Vanaspati, Vṛkṣāyurveda became
prevalent as a distinct branch of Positive knowledge as early as the
Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya expressly referring to it. The contents of
Vṛkṣāyurveda as then known suggest a much smaller scope of know-
ledge than what turned out to be in its latest development in the
thirteenth century of the Christian era.
When I undertook my work on the Positive Sciences of the Ancient
Hindus, and Sir Prafulla Chandra Roy published his History of Hindu
Chemistry, our common purpose was to show that mere religion or
theology was not the pre-occupation of the Hindu mind. The Hindu
Ṛṣi of all ages was a votary of an all-round culture, and that accor-
dingly his interest and attention was not confined to any particular
aspect of life, or of reality. In order to appreciate and to do justice
to ancient Indian civilization it has to be viewed correctly and inter-
preted comprehensively in all its aspects and from all points of view.