Friday 29 July 2016

Search for Sanjivini



When Lakshmana fell unconscious, near death, hit by an arrow from Ravana’s son Meghnad, Hanuman approached the Lankan Royal Physician Sushena for advice.

Sushena asked Hanuman to rush to Dronagiri Hills and fetch four plants: Mruthasanjeevani (restorer of life), Vishalyakarani (remover of arrows), Sandhanakarani (restorer of the skin) and Savarnyakarani (restorer of skin colour) (Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, 74th chapter, Yuddakanda, Slokas 29-34).

Hanuman, not able to pick the four from the multitude, brought back the entire hill. And Lakshmana was revived from near death back to life, and to victory.


Of the 4 plants, Mruthsanjeevani or simply Sanjeevani is the most important since it is believed to bring one from near death back to life. What then is this plant, where does it occur, and does it do what the Ramayana describes?


The contemporary Dronagiri range, some 400km from Dehradun, is named after a village in Chamoli district. According to the recent reports, researchers from ministry of AYUSH going to scour this mountain for the Sanjivini.



During this search Scientists discovered many species that have many healing properties. Among them most prominent are Cressa cretica, Selaginella bryopteris , Desmotrichum fimbriatum and Rhodiola. 

Among these four, Rhodiola has many qualities that convinces scientists. Following properties of Rhodiola are very important those are:-


  1. Immunomodulatory(which enhances the immune system)
  2. Adaptogenic(adaptability to the different climatic conditions)
  3. radio-protecting abilities(resistant to gamma radiation incase of nuclear attack)
  4. anti-depressant(in Ladakh region, soldiers are frequently succumbed to the depression due to the vast area of monotonous white coloured surface)
  5. appetizer
  6. anti-tuberculosis properties
  7. anti-cancer properties


Though these species caters different properties, Researchers are unconvinced. Still search is continued. Recently Govt of Utterakhand announced huge budget to search for sanjivini.

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