A Green initiative of a heritage kind Reaches 1 lakh seed dispersed

Udupi: It is a conservation effort that is deeply rooted in culture and history. Thanks to Prof. SA Krishnaiah who is leading a single handed campaign to save the ‘Srithale’ a kind of palm tree that had provided leaves for engraving and recording history. Even the ‘Artha Shastra’ (Statecraft) written by Vishnu Gupta (Chanakya) 3000 years back was written on the leaves of ‘Srithale’ that survives even today at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Mysuru. The Srithale(Corypha umbraculifera)“Today we are extremely pleased that our campaign has achieved a milestone of dispersing a little over 1 lakh seeds of Srithale tree. From the banks of the Cauvery river to the Ganga river in Varanasi. We had arrived at 75,000 seeds dispersed on the 75th year of freedom of our country, But on Friday we crossed 1 lakh seeds dispersed” Prof. S A Krishnaiah director of the Prachya Sanchaya (oriental Archives) Research Centre based at Udupi.

“Originally we had planned to disperse the seeds of Srithale between Cauvery to the Godavari, but the encouragement we received from the conservationists, researchers and green activists was so overwhelming that we stretched our resources to reach Varanasi”. Srithale also grows wildly in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal and during the growth of Buddhism, it also went into South-Eastern countries. The earliest mention of Srithale is however found in ‘Upakathas’ of the epic Ramayana. “Tamil Nadu even today holds the largest numbers of Srithale trees which number at 12,000. What is more important is that Srithale has a unique type of leaf. When treated with a mixture of herbs they become extremely long-lasting. The original manuscripts of Kautilya’s ‘Arthashastra’ which is engraved on Srithale leaves dating back to 314 BC is still preserved in Oriental Institute of Research (ORI)in Mysuru. I do not think any modern storage devices or instruments will last that long. So if we are serious about saving the art of palm leaf engraving, conservation and protection of Srithale tree gains prominence” Krishnaiah says.

This temple town which is known to be the world headquarters of Dwaitha philosophy among the three ancient philosophes of Advaita (Adi Shankara) Dwaitha (Madhwacharya) and Vishitadwaita (Ramanujachrya) is now making heroic efforts to save the last bastion of the ancient art of ‘Thaale Gari’ inscriptions (palm leaf engraving) from extinction. The ‘Srithale’ tree is the only tree for raw material for palm leaf engraving. Commonly known as the talipot palm. “This is a species of palm- native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is a flowering plant with the largest inflorescence in the world. But due to some superstitions numbers in India particularly on the Coast of Karnataka, these trees are cut down once they flower. The superstition is woven around an unfounded story that a flowering Srithale tree carries a bad omen, and the event of flowering will be followed by the death of an important elder belonging to the immediate vicinity of the tree. The numbers of this important tree have dwindled drastically and no impactful conservation efforts have been made till now”. Prof. S Krishnaiah told Hans India.

The conservation got good traction after two prominent Swamiji's Vishwaprasanna Thirtha of Udupi Pejavar Mutt and Charukirti Panditacharyavara Bhattaraka Swamiji Jain mutt of Moodbidri had encouraged me to take up this campaign Prof Krishnaiah stated.