The Garden of Life
Naveen Patnaik is one of the longest-serving chief ministers of any Indian state having won five consecutive terms. Before he became Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik authored 3 books including The Garden of Life . This book covering 70 healing plants out of the 1500 that Charaka’s treatise describes in Charaka Samhita (pre-2nd century CE), was a great introduction for me to Ayurveda. Along with the Sushruta Samhita, Charaka Samhita or Treatise of Charaka (pre-2nd century CE) is one of the two foundational texts of this Ayurveda that have survived from ancient India. Charaka’s treatise describes 1,500 plants and identifies 350 of them as valuable for medicinal purposes. The Garden of Life is divided into five sections--Sacred, Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic, and Aromatic--and features discussion of the applications of seventy plants along with some interesting anecdotes. SACRED PLANTS Banyan (Ficus bengalensis) - Indian merchants, or banias , frequently conducted their busi