Plants in the works of the three sages of Sanskrit grammar.

Panini is placed in 7th or 5th Cent. B.C, His work Astadhyayi contains valuable information regarding plants and plant sciences. In Vedic times, the plant kingdom was generally divided in two broad divisionsOsadhi (herbs&shrubs) and Vanaspati. (tree) Panini, following the same tradition. made similar classification only replacing the word 'Vanaspati' by 'Vrk~a' somewhere as is evident from the Sutra88.4.6 fcr'1r"l"T"lfa--Cf'Wlf<:f~' and 4.3.133 a:r~ :q 5I"J1l!I'ft;rffiq&l~<::f: Though he has mentioned the word "Virud" i~ Nyankvadi Gana (7.3.53). the word 'Vanaspatya' has been used in the sense of a collection of plants ~~qcftrrr ~~: GfTrr~qc<r+{. It is to be noted that in the chapter of classification of plants. Susruta preferred the word 'V~k~a instead of ·Vanaspatya' (as given by Caraka) like Panini.