The Bhimashankar temple on the Western Ghats is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples in India, on the pilgrimage path to Shiva. High up on the escarpment of the Western Ghats, one can reach it from the Pune-Nashik Highway, or from the west, via Murbad from Kalyan. My second visit to the temple was sometime in September 2009, with Dr. Neetin Desai and Dr. Amar Supate and others. We reached at night, nearer to Bhimashankar and stayed in a rest house on the plains, and later, on the morrow, early up, drove right to the temple area. Four of us managed to get in queue to offer the Laghurudrabhishekam. But, thats' another story.
As we came back, trekking up to the parking area, through the forests of the Bhimahshankar wildlife sanctuary, we passed through different stalls that sold medicinal plant parts. Most were labeled very neatly, and there was one that also said that the vendor was the Secretary or President of the ayurvedic vaids assocation of the area. I stood around nearby, and waited to see if people were stopping and enquiring about the medicines. None did.
This must be a dying trade and medicinal form. Most ayurvedic medicines are now mass made in good manufacturing 'factories' and the niche for these traditional and hereditary ayurvedic collectors, processors and medicine manufacturers must be dying out very rapidly. I spoke to some of them but they said that they usually end up collecting some medicines in larger quantities and selling them to known persons only, for these would need to be consumed for 1-2 years to effect a cure. That trade was enough to take care of their survival.
As we came back, trekking up to the parking area, through the forests of the Bhimahshankar wildlife sanctuary, we passed through different stalls that sold medicinal plant parts. Most were labeled very neatly, and there was one that also said that the vendor was the Secretary or President of the ayurvedic vaids assocation of the area. I stood around nearby, and waited to see if people were stopping and enquiring about the medicines. None did.
This must be a dying trade and medicinal form. Most ayurvedic medicines are now mass made in good manufacturing 'factories' and the niche for these traditional and hereditary ayurvedic collectors, processors and medicine manufacturers must be dying out very rapidly. I spoke to some of them but they said that they usually end up collecting some medicines in larger quantities and selling them to known persons only, for these would need to be consumed for 1-2 years to effect a cure. That trade was enough to take care of their survival.
