The research behind Silent Cuisines—especially to understand the greens, tubers, and flowers that form the heart of Adivasi recipes—led me to a remarkable vintage book series titled Sabarkantha ni Vanaushadio. Authored by Rajvaidya Shri Rasiklal Parikh between the 1940s and 1970s, it reads like a travelogue through the deciduous forests along the Sabarmati river and the foothills of the Aravalli mountains. While I found a few mentions of the greens I was searching for, what stayed with me was the detailed account of one particular tree: Indrajav/Tellicherry tree (Holarrhena antidysenterica), called Kado in the Gujarati dialect. The series contains numerous references to the tree’s medicinal properties, and the epic Shri Aryabhisak devotes an entire page to its virtues. “The forests are filled with Indrajav trees. At night, the air swells with the fragrance of its jasmine-like flowers. In Ayurveda, its bark, leaves, roots, and seeds are revered for treating digestive ailments, worms, fevers, and piles. The flowers, in particular, are said to help regulate diabetes. While the potent medicines prepared from the bark and seeds require expert administration, tribal families have long tapped into its gentler powers by cooking with the flowers—turning them into shaak or kadhi,” recounts Shri Parikh. During my research travels for Silent Cuisines, I [...]