[INDOLOGY] āruka?

[Robert Hueckstedt]

Fellow listers:
I wish to learn more about the āruka plant. It is supposedly used 
medicinally, and the St. Pete's has it as growing in the Himalayas, but 
I have come across it in Bāṇa's description of the Punjabi (now Haryana) 
region called Śrīkaṇṭha. In that description it (or most likely its 
seed, nut, fruit?) is being pecked at by a chukar partridge (cakora).  
The phrase is: cakoracañcujarjaritāruka. Böhtlingk and Roth, following 
the Śabdakalpadruma, assign it the synonyms vīrāruka and vīrasena. The 
Hindi Śabdasāgar says it has a cooling effect. I simply would like to 
know what it is more precisely that this bird is pecking at.

Gratefully,
Bob Hueckstedt