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| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
404 SING-IRANICA
gathered, and either pounded and pressed or roasted and boiled, and the oily fluid is collected. It is found to be unctuous and not inferior to olive-oil for burning in lamps, save that it emits a disagreeable odor. Seeds of Ricinus are known from Egyptian tombs, and the plant is still cultivated in Egypt. Pliny' states that it is not so long ago that the plant was introduced into Italy. A. DE CANDOLLE2 traces its home to tropical Africa, and I agree with this view. Moreover, I hold that it was transplanted from Egypt to India, although, of course, we have no documentary proof to this effect. Ricinus does not belong to the plants which were equally known to the Iranians and Indo-Aryans. It is not mentioned in the Vedas or in the Laws of Manu. The first datable references to it occur in the Bower Manuscript, where its oil and root are pointed out under the names erancda, gandharva, rubûgaka, and vaksana. Other names are ruvu, ruvuka, or ruvûka, citraka, gandharvahastaka, vyâghra puccha ("tiger's-tail ") . The word erancda has become known to the Chinese in the form i-lan f ffti and was adopted into the language of Kuèa (Tokharian B) in the form hiranda.5 From India the plant seems to have spread to the Archipelago and Indo-China (Malayan, Sunda, and Javanese jarak; Khmer lohon; Annamese du du trait, kai-dua, or kai-du-du-tia; Cam tamnön, lahaun, lahon) .6 The Miao and the Lo-lo appear to be familiar with the plant: the former call it zrwa-no;7 the latter, te-tu-ma (that is, "fruit for the poisoning of dogs ") .8
In Iran the cultivation of Ricinus has assumed great importance, but no document informs us as to the time of its transplantation. It may be admitted, however, that it was well known there prior to our era.' The Persian name is beddnjir, pandu, punde, or pendu; in Arabic it is xarva or xarva.
'XV,7,§25.
2 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 422.
3 JORET, Plantes dans l'antiquité, Vol. II, p. 270. Fan yi min yi tsi, section 24.
S. LEvi, Journal asiatique, 1911, II, p. 123.
6 On the cultivation in Indo-China, see PERROT and HURRIER, Mat. méd. et pharmacopée sino-annamites, p. 107. Regarding the Archipelago, see A. DE CAN-DOLLE, op. cit., p. 422; W. MARSDEN, History of Sumatra, p. 92; J. CRAWFURD, History of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. I, p. 382. The plant is reported wild from Sumatra and the Philippines, but the common Malayan name jarak hints at an historical distribution.
7 F. M. SAVINA, Dictionnaire miao-tseu-français, pp. 205, 235.
8 P. VIAL, Dictionnaire français-lolo, p. 290. Also the Arabs used Ricinus as a dog-poison (LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 20).
9 JORET, Op. cit., p. 72.
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