Hortus Malabaricus is a comprehensive treatise that deals with the properties of the flora of the Western Ghats region principally covering the areas now in the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka and Goa.
History
Written in Latin, it was compiled over a period of nearly 30 years and published in Amsterdam during 1678–1693. The book was conceived by Hendrik van Rheede, who was the Governor of Dutch Malabar at the time. The book has been translated into English and Malayalam by K. S. Manilal and published by the University of Kerala.
About
The Hortus Malabaricus comprises 12 volumes of about 500 pages each, with 794 copper plate engravings. The first of the 12 volumes of the book was published in 1678, and the last in 1693. It is believed to be the earliest comprehensive printed work on the flora of Asia and the tropics. Mentioned in these volumes are plants of the Malabar region which in his time referred to the stretch along the Western Ghats from Goa to Kanyakumari. The book gives a detailed account of the flora of Kerala, along with sketches and detailed descriptions. Over 742 different plants and their indigenous science are considered in the book. The book also employs a system of classification based on the traditions adopted by the practitioners of that region. Apart from Latin, the plant names have been recorded in other languages including Malayalam, Konkani, Arabic, English. The comprehensive nature of the book is noted by T. Whitehouse in his 1859 Historical Notices of Cochin on the Malabar Coast: Several species of plants have their type illustrations in this work. vaidya Itti Achuden are mentioned.
Contributors
is said to have taken a keen personal interest in the compilation of the Hortus Malabaricus. The work was edited by a team of nearly a hundred including:
The physician Itti Achuden and the Brahmins Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka bhat and Appu Bhat.
Technicians, illustrators and engravers, together with the collaboration of Dutch East India Company officials, and clergymen including D. John Caesarius and the Discalced Carmelite Mathaeus of St. Joseph’s Monastery at Varapuzha.
Van Rheede was also assisted by the King of Cochin and the ruling Zamorin of Calicut. Prominent among the Indian contributors was the Ezhava physician Itti Achuden, a Thiyya Vaidyan of the Mouton Coast of Malabar whose contribution was examined by three Brahmins named Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka Pandit and Appu Bhat. The ethnomedical original information in the work was provided by Itti Achuden and the three Brahmins, working on it for two continuous years morning and evening. Their certificate to this effect is given in the first volume of the book. A grand memorial to them is erected in Kochi. Professor K. S. Manilal has worked over 35 years on the research, translations, and annotations of the Hortus Malabaricus. The effort has brought the main contents of the book to Malayalam and English-speaking scholars. It had largely remained inaccessible previously to them, because of the entire text being untranslated into the English language and Malayalam language.
