About the publication:

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The Centre for Literary Research (CLR), FRLHT, is pleased to bring out this edition of Kñemakutühalam a 16th century Sanskrit work on dietetics by the famed Äyurvedic physician Kñemaçarmä. The translation of a work of this nature raises several questions, the foremost of which pertains to contemporary relevance. The translator has repeatedly stressed upon the fact that as infectious diseases are being gradually replaced by life-style ailments, nutrition and dietetics have acquired a newer and more profound-than-ever meaning. Western concepts on food, however, cannot be transplanted directly in the Indian soil. Food is an inseparable part of any culture and indigenous concepts about food cannot and should not be ignored at the expense of accepting alien notions. It is in this direction that a work like Kñemakutühalam becomes indispensable.

Even a casual reading of Kñemakutühalam reveals the pan-Indian nature of foodstuffs dealt therein. Our traditional kitchens, even to this day, bear the aroma of recipes detailed by Kñemaçarmä. Kñemaçarmä, in twelve chapters, describes a wide array of foodstuffs. His classification of foodstuffs in to plant products, meats, fish, etc is a rather simple, but an evidently practical one. The author, in the very first chapter, gives a brief summary of topics in about a dozen verses. One cannot fail to take note of the author's scientific outlook about his subject, as is evident from the fact that he begins his work with a discussion on technical parameters relating to food. Most recipes given by Kñemaçarmä are highly practical, not needing any special paraphernalia to prepare them.

This has been the first attempt at translating Kñemakutühalam from Sanskrit to English. A detailed introduction that summarizes the contents of each chapter and appendices such as the list of plants mentioned in Kñemakutühalam along with the pictures of these plants, list of technical terms, supplementary information on foodstuffs from major Äyurvedic texts and an exhaustive table summarizing the properties of foodstuffs add much value to the lucid and faithful-to-the-original translation. Both the translation and the contents of this work have been critically reviewed by eminent Sanskrit scholars and Äyurvedic physicians, thereby making this exercise all the more fruitful.

Kñemakutühalam is a curious 16th century work on Äyurvedic dietetics. Written in Sanskrit by Kñemaçarmä, a royal physician of repute, the work discussed at length about traditional Indian cuisine and its benefits. Spanning across 12 chapters, fancifully named Utsavas, Kñemakutühalam is capable of evoking the admiration of scholars as well as laymen by the breadth of topics covered and the attention paid to details. Each foodstuff is dealt at length. The usual mode of presentation is to fisrt described all culinary varieties that can be prepared from a specific eatable and then enumerate its Äyurvedic properties and health benefits. Some of these foodstuffs have a history of several thousand years while others are comparatively new. The author is also a poet of some merit and never misses an opportunity to add a touch of poetry once a while to his already tasty recipes. There is no doubt that this work will be a feast to the readers.

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Some important aspects that are dealt with, in the publication -

• The Author's lineage, list of contents and the technicalities of the culinary science.
• The importance of food in sustaining the body, construction of an ideal kitchen, list of cooking Paraphernalia and the methods for detecting food-poisoning.
• The Praise of physicians and cooks.
• Seasonal regimens.
• Diurnal regimens.
• The characteristics of an ideal consumer, utensils for serving food, preparation and merits of various foodstuffs, mainly meat-based.
• Preparations from fish-meat.
• Cooking of plant-products such as leaf, flower, fruit, stalk, bulb and root and their merits.M
• Preparation of fermented and pickled foodstuffs and different types of Vaòäs.
• Preparation of different sweets.
• Preparation of appetizers.
• Delineation of dairy products and soothing beverages.

Photo guide to selected medicinal plants of Karnataka

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After the publication of successful, most sought after field guide to Red Listed medicinal plants, the Herbarium team of FRLHT has now come up with yet another book titled "Photo guide to selected medicinal plants of Karnataka" to cater the needs of students, teachers and users of medicinal plants. This copiously illustrated guide deals with 100 widely used common medicinal plants species of the state. Provided for each species in this book are popular names in Kannada, Hindi and English, plant description, distribution, months of flowering and fruiting and information on medicinal uses of various parts of the plant. As the name implies adequate pictures covering key features such as habit, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, exudates, roots/tubers etc. are provided to recognize the identity of the species in the field. While we are sure that this book will be of useful to students, teachers and users of medicinal plants, this will also be helpful to garden managers, foresters, plant breeders and any plant lovers.

ISBN No.: 978-81-908965-3-5
No.of pages: 111
No.of species: 100
No.of color pictures: 405