Kadamba

[Stella Sandahl]

Indian Medicinal Plants (published by Orient Longman) Vol. 4, p. 120  
has the following:
Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser
(=Anthocephalus chinensis (Lam) Rich. ex. Walp.)
(A. cadamba (Roxb) Miq.)
It is said to belong to the Rubiaceae family (mañjiSTha kulam)
They give the word "Kadam" as the English equivalent (hardly helpful).
IMP also says that it is distributed "throughout the Western Ghats at  
low levels in wet places" which seems wrong, since the kadamba tree  
is found in Sanskrit poetry from elsewhere. It occurs three times in  
the GItagovinda.
Stella Sandahl

--
Professor Stella Sandahl
Department of East Asian Studies
130 St. George St. room 14087
Toronto, ON M5S 3H1
ssandahl at sympatico.ca
stella.sandahl at utoronto.ca
Tel. (416) 978-4295
Fax. (416) 978-5711



On 19-Aug-08, at 9:38 AM, mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU wrote:

> The Kadamba tree is identified by Monier-Williams (p. 247)
> as Nauclea Cadamba and by Apte (p. 527) as Stephegyne
> Parviflora Korth. The comment in Apte's entry that it
> "is said to put forth buds at the roaring of thunder-
> clouds" precisely fits the context in the passage that
> concerns me (Prabodhacandrodaya, 4.13c).
>
> Does anyone have a clue about the correct botanical
> identification, and whether there is a familiar
> English name in use?
>
> thanks in advance,
> Matthew
>
> Matthew T. Kapstein
> Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
> The University of Chicago Divinity School
>
> Directeur d'études
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris