“Variety of Plant Ingredients used in Holding a Customary ‘Shraadh’ as Traditional Cultural Heritage in Kumaun Region of Central Himalaya”

The region Central Himalaya popularly known as “Land of Gods” (Devbhumi) is inhabited by the people who keep the high religious reverence on not only Gods but also on plants from ancient time till today. Religious practices or ceremonies are performed on various auspicious occasions to seek blessings of Gods. Various plants and their ingredients are used by the people in ceremonies and other rituals like Katha, fast, festivals, worship (Poojapath) etc. The present paper highlights the significance of plant parts (i.e. root, stem, leaves, flowers, seeds and fruits or whole plant) and their ingredients like oil, grains, cotton, cooked food etc. used in various steps during shraadh ceremony. A total of 27 sacred plants and their 16 products used during shraadh ceremony were recorded from Kumaun (Central Himalaya) during Sep 2011 to Sep 2012. This case study was conducted to study the cultural and environmental significance of plants ingredients used in shraadh-karm (ceremony) in Kumaun region of Uttarakhand. Different steps of this ceremony like pitra-pujan, havan, ann-daan, pind-daan, vastra-daan, gau-daan, kanya-daan, bhoomi-daan and shraadh visarjan are also documented by collecting information from the survey and literature from religious books. Shraadh-karm is a way of expressing our feelings of reverence for the ancestors and also a way of gaining their blessings for our well-being.