Article ID: CBB001450394

Vishalyakarani as Eupatorium ayapana: Retro-botanizing, Embedded Traditions, and Multiple Historicities of Plants in Colonial Bengal, 1890--1940 (2014)

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This article critically examines the assumptions and processes involved in identifying historically distinctive plant identities by their Latin botanical names. By following late-colonial efforts to identify a medicinal herb mentioned in some versions of the Ramayana, this paper argues for a historicist analysis of the process of retro-botanizing. In so doing, it also distinguishes between two different forms of tradition, the factualized and embedded. Finally, it blurs the allegedly watertight distinction between historical and mythic pasts. Instead of trying to distinguish these pasts ontologically, I argue that it is more productive to see specific pasts in relation to the sorts of futures they produce, that is, their respective historicities.

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Authors & Contributors
Sinha, Jagdish N.
Fabrizio M. Ferrari
Bhattacharyya, Debjani
Arnab Chakraborty
Manjapra, Kris
Swain, Margaret Byrne
Concepts
Colonialism
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
India, civilization and culture
Great Britain, colonies
Medicine
Science and culture
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
17th century
Places
India
Bengal (India)
Africa
Germany
Velha Goa (India)
Calcutta (India)
Institutions
British East India Company
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