Portuguese and Dutch Narratives on the “Fabled Forests” in the Late Medieval India: The Beginnings of Modern Taxonomy

In order to meet the peculiar challenges confronting the reconstruction of India’s natural environment and forestry during the “late medieval” period, a novel attempt is made to take a close look at “the temple offerings” to the deities. The study is confined to selected temples in South India because of the availability of corresponding temple inscriptions, with which the changing constituents of the “temple offerings” were correlated on a long-term basis. Then the Portuguese and the Dutch narratives available in the archives and accessible in translation were scrutinised to draw a picture of the “Fabled Forests” of the “Indes” as objectively as possible. In the process, it is inspiring to learn how deep and extensive was the traditional knowledge of the tribes and people about the medicinal properties and curative qualities of the herbs and fruits. The Portuguese and the Dutch colonists came in search of spices (and Christians) and went about their task in a systematic, secular, and scientific way. They studied the flora and fauna, the techniques of growing and cultivating the spices they wanted, even spied on one another and built on the indigenous knowledge. In the process they laid the foundation for the modern science of taxonomy.