नामरूपज्ञानम् (Characterization of Medicinal Plants) /15

Introduction
 
In ancient and medieval times, there was no
system of morphological description of plants as done
nowadays. This object, however, was fulfilled by
coining names and synonyms which indicated the
salient features of plants. The main reason of not
going into details in this regard has been the close
contact with plants growing in the surroundings thus
not necessitating other means of identification. In
those days, plants were like family members partici-
pating with the people mutually on occasions of joy
and grief. Sensitiveness and emotional attachment can
be imagined by plant's longing (dohada) for a
particular substance of gesture of woman for blos-
soming.
 
Nāma (name) and rūpa (form) are linked with
each other like word and its meaning in order to
distinguish objects. In recent times, 'Nāmarūpajñāna'
has been designated as a distinct branch of
Dravyaguṇavijñāna[^1]. The word 'nāmarūpajñāna' may
be interpreted in three ways-
1. That by which names and forms (of sub-
stances) are known. (नामरूपे
 
[^1]. See P.V. Sharma: Dravyguṇavijñāna, Vol. I.