Medieval Indian Horticulture: English Translation of the Text from Ganj Badaward of Khanzaman Amanullah Khan Firuzjang

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Horticulture during the medieval times occupied a pride of place in society. Because the practitioners as a rule were without alphabetism not much was committed to paper. Transfer of knowledge being primarily oral, and mode of training being in service, commitment to paper did not cover much operational detail vital for replication. Such limitations drastically limit the availability of manuscript material on horticulture. Translated manuscript in hand seems to be the primary source written in 16th century from where where all others have derived their information. Based on floral content, it is obvious that the manuscript is Indian and not a copy of some central Asian source. Most interesting aspect of the text deals with the grafting methods where the author also discusses the advantages that it offers for fruit improvement. The text poses some serious conceptual problems in the section where it deals with grafting transcending even the boundaries of Taxonomical Families. If replicated, such grafts open up new visions not only in fruit improvement but also in our understanding of plant physiology and cellular levels operation of genetic process. From the text it comes out that until 19th century Indian horticulturist was in no way lagging behind his European counterpart. Indian lag emerged  because of British policy during the 19th century and was due to official interventions. It seems the translation in hand is the first translation from Persian into English of a complete and standard source. In order to avoid confusion in fruit name in the end we have given a dictionary where correspondence could be established between Persian. Hindustani, English and Latin names. Text provides corresponding botanical napes of all plants discussed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jaweed Ashraf

Professor Jaweed Ashraf was born in 1934 in a family of Malkhana Rajputs with both Hindu and Muslim relatives. Thus, from childhood he experienced an insider’s view of both cultures. He had his primary education in Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, an institution that was born out of the freedom movement and where traditional Islamic learning was combined with modern education. He learnt Arabic and Persian, besides Urdu, Hindi and English in Jamia. Later he shifted to Lucknow Christian College where he started studying Biology and experienced Christian belief and way of life. He graduated with Geology, Geography and Botany from Aligarh Muslim University and also obtained his Master’s degree in Botany from there. In 1960 he went to join Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Moscow, for his doctoral studies in physiological genetics. After completing his doctorate, from 1965 to 1972 he worked as a Junior Research Assistant in the USSR Academy of Sciences, first working in the Institute of Genetics in Moscow and then in the Botanical Institute, Leningrad. In 1972 he joined School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi as Associate Professor and finally retired from there in 1999. Since his retirement he has worked on projects of Indian Council of Historical Research and of Indian National Science Academy, editing and translating medieval manuscripts on Unani medicine, horticulture and other aspects of medieval Indian biological sciences. He knows a number of modern and classical languages and has extensively covered countries of Asia, Durope and the U.S.A. He has served on a numbr of committees appointed by Archaeological Survey of India and other departments of the government of India.

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Bibliographic information

Title
Medieval Indian Horticulture: English Translation of the Text from Ganj Badaward of Khanzaman Amanullah Khan Firuzjang
Author
Edition
1st ed.
Publisher
ISBN
8189441035
Length
xxvi+128p., Illustrations; Bibliography; Index; 22cm.
Subjects