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Exhibition
on till March 30th 2008, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Friday
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The exhibit “Such Treasure
and Rich Merchandize:” presents botanical illustrations,prints,
and maps from seven European books published between 1543 and
1693.
These books provide fascinating glimpses into a little known
chapter of the history of East-West interaction and highlight
the importance of Indian botanical knowledge to the science
and history of the period.
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The exhibit "Such Treasure and Rich Merchandize" at
the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, provides
fascinating glimpses into a little known chapter of the history
of East-West interaction during the pre-colonial period. The
exhibit presents botanical illustrations, prints, and maps from
books published between 1543 and 1693, and highlights the importance
of Indian botanical knowledge to the science and history of
the period.
Until the middle of the 18th Century, botanicals from India
were important ingredients of European life as culinary additives,
medicines and luxury items. The search for shorter and direct
sea routes to India to acquire these commodities was the driving
force for the voyages of discovery that profoundly changed both
the world's maps, and its history.
East-West trade intensified after 1498 when Vasco da Gama arrived
in Calicut to procure pepper and other natural products for
Portugal. Many others followed suit, and along with the commodities
they acquired, Europeans in India sought out and compiled indigenous
knowledge of medicinal and agrarian plants for their use in
India and elsewhere. The wealth of botanical knowledge from
the thriving indigenous medical traditions and centuries-old
agricultural practices made its way into several European books
published in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are valuable
repositories of the local medical traditions of South India
of the 15th to the 17th century, many of which have long been
hidden in palm leaf manuscript collections or already vanished
from the scholarly horizon.
The books presented in the exhibit also give us glimpses of
the high level of knowledge of the Indian scholars who contributed
to these volumes, though most are not identified by name. The
specifics and accuracy of the Indian botanical information recorded
in these books suggest intimate collaboration with and cooperation
from Indian scholars and they are generally identified as learned
and dedicated scholars. These books are also important resources
to scholars from diverse fields, serving as a window into Indian
culture prior to the 18th century.
The highlighted book in this exhibit is the twelve volume pre-Linnaean
botanical work "Hortus Indicus Malabaricus", published
in Amsterdam from 1678 to 1693 and entirely devoted to the useful
and medicinal plants of South India. These volumes are unique
in the annals of colonial botany for the quality of the content
and for the extent of the collaboration between the Indian and
European scholars. For their major contributions to this work,
the Indian scholars are individually identified and honored.
The exhibit is curated by Annamma Spudich, Scholar in Residence
at NCBS.
Annamma Spudich is a cell biologist (Ph.D., Stanford
University) with life long interest in the history of Indian
scientific traditions in the natural sciences. In 2003 Dr. Spudich
curated the exhibit "From Forreine Places All the Varietie
of Herbes" at The Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford
University. The exhibition at the NCBS and related collateral
was designed and coordinated by Sarita Sundar and her team at
Trapeze, Bangalore. Trapeze is a multi-disciplinary design consultancy
and studio. The partners worked with the curator to reproduce
and present material from various libraries and collections
throughout the world and present an informative and novel look
at the history of East-West interaction in the pre-colonial
period, focused on the natural sciences.
The National Centre for Biological Sciences is part of the Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research devoted to the study of biological
systems using experimental and computational approaches. The
faculty and staff at the NCBS are from a broad array of disciplines
and collaborate to advance knowledge of life processes.
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