Amritha K R By

He has collected over 1,000 species of plants over the past 20 years, but Purushothama Kamath’s mission is still not complete.

Kamath, a Konkani farmer from Thammanam, is on a mission to preserve what some of his community members had helped create over 300 years ago, the collection and categorization of plants for the legendary work Hortus Malabaricus.

The Hortus Malabaricus, a treatise on the medicinal properties of the flora of Kerala, was prepared under the guidance of the then Governor of Dutch Malabar, Henrik Van Reede in the 1600’s.

The treatise was undertaken with the assistance of about a 100 physicians including three prominent Konkanis including Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka Pandit and Appu Bhatt.

While the treatise was successfully published in Amsterdam and later translated to various languages, many of the plants are no longer to be seen.

The garden which was set up in Fort Kochi for nurturing the 700 odd medicinal plants meanwhile has been all but destroyed. Now, sitting before a collection of some of his medicinal plants for the Fort Kochi Flower Show, Purushothama Kamath illustrates why it was important to bring out a collection of all the works. “The book is one of the oldest treatiser on the plant wealth of Malabar. But in spite of that there is no comprehensive collection or preservation of the plants. With my collection I hope to bring them for exhibitions like the Fort Kochi Flower Show and bring out the importance of the work,”, he says.

Incidentally, the Fort Kochi Flower Show, where he is currently exhibiting his plants, stands beside what is said to be the site of the original Hortus Malabaricus garden. Kammath says though he has over 1000 varieties of the plants, the task could still be arduous.

“There are over 700 species that find mention in the book. Most of them are from Kerala. But as difficult as the procurement of the plants would be, an even more important task would be identification. There are plants which look very similar to other plants of other species. In such cases, in spite of inspection it is often difficult to detect them,” said A V Purushothama Kamath.

But he is still keeping his fingers crossed. “With the next year’s Fort Kochi Flower Show, I hope to collect all the plants and put them on display for the audience,” says Kamath.