Proceedings of the Seminar on Prakrit Studies 1973

Author(s): K R Chandra, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 49

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Many plants and animals fall into easily recognisable natural groups, and their classification presents no difficulty, "but other forms, which seem to lie on the border line between two groups, according to modern Biology, and have some characteristics in common with each are difficult to assign to one or the other."54
Distinction Between Plants, Animals and Protists: The living world has been divided into two kingdoms, one of plants55 and one of animals,66 The word 'vaṇapphai'57 (plant) suggests trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses and vines-large and familiar objects of every day world. And the word 'pasu' 58 suggests both wild59 and domestico animals in a wider sence, such as, lions, tigers, cows, buffaloes, birds, frogs, fish, etc. Further thought brings to mind such forms of life, as ferns, mosses, mushrooms and pond scums, 62 quite different but recognizable as plants, and insects, 63 worms $4 (kṛmis), etc., that are definitely animals, According to some modern biologists, a third kingdom, the protista, be set up to include the singlecelled organisms that are intermediate in many respects between plants and animals, e.g. Euglena moves around like an animal but contains chlorophyll and can carry on photosynthesis like a plant. 65
Fundamentally, plants and animals, as mentioned in Prakrit literature, are alive in many ways, both are made of cells (nigoda body?) as structural and functional units and both have many metabolic processes in common. But there are some obvious ways and some obscure ways in which they differ.
Plants may be classified into bacteria, 66 algae, 67 fungi, 68 herbs, 69 shrubs, 70 creepers (vines), grasses72 and trees,73 on the basis of general properties of green plant cells, the structure and functions of a seed plant, reproduction, etc. Microscopic bacteria (i. e. nigodajivas, pṛthvikayika-jivas upto Vanas patikayikas) and insects and animals of terrestrial74 and aquatic75 origin and aerial beings76 find mention in the Jaina Agamic Prakrit texts with their distinct classifications. It appears that plants and animals were classified into species and genus, etc., on the basis of certain principies, such as, birth, habitat, living, special structural features, utility, etc, i. e. evolutionary descent and ecology in general.
The authors of Prakrit literature touched upon the problems of properties of green plant,77 plant digestion,78 plant circulation, respiration80 in plants, the structures81 and functions82 of a seed plant, the storage of food,83 types of plants,84 bacteria, etc., figures and sizess of earth quadrates, evolution of plant reproduction87 of bacteria, algae88 and fungi,89 the reproduction-asexual reproduction, 91 germination92 of the seed and evolutionary trends in the plant kingdom.