Drumavichitrīkaranam - The Ancient Approach to Plant Mutagenesis

Sustainable agriculture has come to the fore in recent times. Today agricultural scientists are in a race against time to maintain global resource sustainability and foremost on their agenda is food production. As populations increase exponentially and arable land is usurped for urbanization, the available arable land for agriculture is diminishing rapidly. Plant biotechnology can help in developing improved crop varieties, but it is not entirely without its perils. The long-term negative effects of Genetically Modified (GM) crops are still unclear. In the Indian context, a much safer technology may already be within our reach, locked in such ancient treatises as the Vrikshāyurveda. In tune with the current trends in organic agriculture, there also exists an organic methodology of plant mutagenesis-termed Drumavichitrīkaranam-in the ancient Indian treatises. The present study analyses the various aspects of drumavichitrīkaranam, such as the nature of the mutagenesis carried out, the type of mutagenic agents used, the the comparative study of the treatises, and presents possible applications of drumavichitrīkaranam.