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448 : Scientific Contents in Prākṛta Canons
plants are called infinite-bodied (ananta kāyika ) as there is active living element in each individual part of the plant which represents individual living cells present in each part. Bulbous vegetation (plants growing under ground), sprouts, tendril leaf buds, wood fungus, moss, mushrooms, ginger, carrot, algae, and the like are general plants. The canons have given about sixty three names of general plants in different texts shown in Table 3. These names are mostly given as found in texts as their equivalents are not easily available. While these names are given, it must be noted that in the early stage of growth from seed or otherwise, a plant remains non-supporting individual bodied upto about 48 minutes and then it becomes general bodied for a good length of time until signs of individual characteristics appear26. The later texts presume that it is very difficult to judge about the general or individual bodiedness of many plants. However, one could decide about it by closely observing the characteristics at any time.
The characteristics of individual plants are just opposite to those of the general plants. However, they have been subclassified in two categories: (i) supporting and (ii) nonsupporting ones27. The supporting individual bodied plants are those which are substratum of many general plants. The nonsupporting ones are those which do not support other plants. They support themselves. They may be autotrophs.
All of them are gross bodied, though at nucleation stage, they might be microscopic. The livingness in these plants may be dormant or active. The actively living individual plants can give birth to a new species. During the stage of growth, every growing part of the plant is in an actively living stage. The life existing in its different parts is said to be fully completioned depending on the level of life. All the macroscopic plants come under this category.
The dormant-life plants behave differently. They dry when they are cut. It is presumed that every plant's life is dormant in its first stage of growth. It seems that this distinction
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