वृक्षायुर्वेद (सुरपाल - प्राचीन भारतीय पादप-विज्ञान, कृषि एवं वृक्ष-चिकित्सा सटीक)

major concern. The Bruntland Commission report of
1976 and the Agenda 21 adopted by the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development have
challenged us to look beyond the obvious issues of
producing more food together with giving a fuller
recognition to issues of biodiversity. Vrikshayurveda is
replete with references that suggest that raising trees is
a means of attaining the four broad aims of life: dharma,
artha, kama, and moksha, which broadly mean that for
an holistic development of mankind and its welfare in
all its spheres including inter-generational equity, trees
have an important place. Fortunately, these are key
words for today's sustainable development of
agriculture.
In the text, considerable details are made available on
the kinds of trees—both shade-giving and
fruit-bearing—and flowering shrubs that can be
successfully grown and their benefits they provide.
Based on their growth habit both above- and below-
ground, and the kind of products they yield,
recommendations are made on aspects of their planting
and the distance of location of trees around the house.
As an example, the text suggests that the distance of
planting of the tree from the residence should be such
that its shadow does not fall on the house. Today, we
know that the diameter and height of the canopy of a
tree are related to the extent to which its roots can spread,
i.e., the diameter is related to their circumference of
spread and root depth is related to the height. During
the old days, houses were mainly built with wood or
mud and had weak foundations. The roots of the tree
could damage the structure; therefore the
recommendation. Many such examples abound in the
text.

Methods for sustainable horticultural
production
It is also evident from the study of Vrikshayurveda that
the people were those days well aware of the impact of
the quality of the soil on the growth of trees. Three types
of soil with respect to water content were recognized:
arid, marshy, and ordinary. In our agroecological studies
today, we use a similar classification: arid lands are moist
for a short period and limit plant growth due to a short
growing period; wetlands or marshy lands are over-
supplied with water but have poor soil-air-water
relations; and the ordinary lands (the uplands) have a
semi-arid soil moisture regime. These three soil types
are further sub-divided by their color and mineral
content, and the presence of soil biota and stones. In
fact, the soil classification systems in use today to assess
suitability of land for various purposes employ
somewhat similar criteria (Fig. 1).
The Vrikshayurveda recommends that lands that are
either acidic or salty or have an abundance of stones
and gravel are dry (with no accessibility to water); and
lands with ant hills are not suitable for horticultural
production. Incidently, even today we use the same
indicators to judge land suitability for laying out tree-
plantations.
The text abounds with references to the various methods
for raising plants, e.g., from seed, from stalks, from
bulbs, etc. The quality of some seeds having long periods
of dormancy was known. Methods for treating such
seeds with various forms of organic matter and by using
heat treatment to break the dormancy were
recommended. It is thus suggested that the learned
persons of Surapala's time had carefully observed

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