Jaina Biology

SR No.: 001543
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J C Sikdar
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 340
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Science, Biology, & Philosophy
File Size: 19 MB

Page 66

The World of Life : Plants
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organisms cannot synthesize their own food from inorganic materials, therefore, they must live either at the expense of autotrophs73 or upon decaying matter. 74 They may be called heterotrophs. All animals, fungi and most bacteria are heterotrophs.
It is started in the Sūtrakrtänga that some organisms (trees ) feed on the liquid substance of the particles of earth, the origin of various things; these beings consume earth-bodies, water-bodies, fire-bodies, wind-bodies, bodies of plants, they deprive of life the bodies of manifold movable and immovable beings; the destroyed bodies which have been consumed before, or absorbed by riod (are ) digested and assimilated (by them )...75 That is to say, some organisms (trees or plants) are self-nourshing and they can synthesize their own food from inorganic materials and bodies of plants, while some holozoic organisms among plants (like pitcher-plants) must constantly find and catch other organisms - movable and immovable. They consume, digest and assimilate them. Therefore, they must live at the expense of others - autotrophs or heterotrophs. Some organisms born in trees, originated by trees, sprung from trees, springing from trees that originated in earth come forth as trees originated by trees, feed on the sap of the trees originated in earth (3).76 That is parasitism, heterotrophic nutrition found among both plants and animals.
That is to say, “Parasite lives in or on the living body of plant or animals (called the host ) and obtains its nourishment from it. Almost every living organism is the host for one or more parasites.” 7
Some creepers feed on the liquid substance of the particles of earth and the sap of tree, also ( 6-9),78 i. e., they are both autotrophic and parasitic.
In the same way grass, herbs and plants also feed on the liquid substances of the particles of earth (10-15),79 etc. Here it is suggestive that a few plants like the misletoe are in part parasitic and in part 73. Sūtrakrtānga II, 3.:0, 21, 22-28, 29. All animals 1.ve at the expense of autotrophs
in one way or other except some carnivorous enimals. 74. lbid. II, 3.16 Fungi and some bacteria feed in the decaying matters, as it is
found that some beings born in earth, growing here in pa ticles of earth that are the origin of various things, some issue forth as Āya, Kaya mushroom
( Kuhana ) etc. from the decomposed toings in the earth. 75. Sūtraktänga II, 3.1. 76. Ibid. II, 3.3. Some parasitic plants live on the sap of the host plants. 77 Biology, p 85. 78. Sūtrakrtānga II, 3 (6-9). 79. Ibid. II, 3 ( 10-15).