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A Concise History of Science in India c8.s1: Āyurveda: Origin and Antiquity

A Concise History of Science in India c8.s1

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English

Contents

Āyurveda: Origin and Antiquity

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MEDICINE is a natural art born out of the instinct of self-preservation. As in every other land, medical knowledge in India must have grown out of the sheer necessity of overcoming injury, sickness and pain. This overpowering compulsion also made man give up the indiscriminate use of raw vegetation and meat from all sources in favour of selective cultivation, husbandry, processing, mixing and cooking. The prehistoric art of selecting substances which could be assimilated by the human system with benefit and their cooking and compounding to give the most of nourishment and health forms integral parts of the indigenous medical science of India, known as the *Āyurveda*. The term *āyus* means duration or span of life; *veda* means unimpeachable knowledge. Hence the *Āyurveda* is concerned mainly with prolongation of healthy life and prevention of disease and senility and only secondarily with curing of disease. The common translation of the *Āyurveda* is ‘science of life’. Surgery is another survival skill which is as old as hunting and warfare.

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The growth of the healing art is a part of the natural process of man's adjustment to his environment, and the origin of the *Āyurveda* cannot be credited to any particular age, place or person, despite many legends to the contrary. Such legends describing a divine origin and corresponding antiquity of the *Āyurveda* are found in the introductory passages of many Āyurvedic texts, e.g. the *Caraka*, the *Suśruta* and other *Saṃhitās*. It is recorded that Brahmā (the creator) was the divine source of this science, which was brought into existence before the creation of mankind. The knowledge passed from him to the god Dakṣapati, then to the two celestial physicians (the twin Aśvinakumāras), later to Indra, the god-king, and finally to Bharadvāja, the semi-divine sage. Bharadvāja taught this science to a conference of sages meeting somewhere in the Himalayas with the common objects of alleviating human suffering and assuring a long, healthy and satisfactory life to all human beings. The same or similar legends are found in many works, sometimes in greater details. But these legends hardly possess any historical value.

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As far as recorded knowledge goes, the earliest instances of rational medical knowledge are to be found in the *Ṛgveda* and the *Atharvaveda*, both of the second millennium B.C. But there is much evidence to show that the *Āyurveda* was preceded by an earlier medical knowledge developed by the builders of the Indus civilization. The Aryans developed it by taking up the beliefs and practices of the 'black-skinned indigenous people', speculating and experimenting freely in their own way, learning much and unlearning only that which was patently wrong.

Remnants of Previous Traditions

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The medical knowledge of the pre-Aryan Indians has been so thoroughly mixed, diluted and absorbed into the Āyurvedic system that it would be an almost hopeless task to attempt to separate the earlier knowledge which survives only in some *tantras* and in the non-Āyurvedic medicine still practised by otherwise ignorant medicine men throughout India, employing inorganic remedies, secret herbs, animal products and venoms. In the beliefs and practices of the primitive aboriginal tribes of India also, a storehouse of this ancient knowledge can be discerned. The reputation of medical skill possessed by nomadic gypsy tribes, which spread from India into Europe and the Mediterranean lands in early times, can also be attributed to this primitive knowledge. Some examples of ancient Drāviḍa medical lore are believed to have survived intact without debasement in the non-Āyurvedic systems of medicine still surviving in parts of south India, and are found codified in existing treatises in Tamil and other south Indian languages. The fragmentary remnants of *Agadatantra* (use of poisons and venoms in curing diseases, and treatment of bites of poisonous animals and poisonings) found in various ancient works and of *Bhūtavidyā* (black magic and treatment of mental diseases and possessions) found in Vedic lore and in Āyurvedic treatises, as will be discussed later, testify to the existence of lost branches of non-Āyurvedic medical knowledge incorporated in the *Āyurveda*. In the *Rāmāyaṇa*, Rāvaṇa, the demon (non-Aryan) king, is said to be a master of many sciences including medical science; and the prince Lakṣmaṇa is resuscitated from a mortal injury by the medical skill of the apes, that is dark-skinned aborigines (6th canto; Lakṣmaṇa, already dead by the *śaktiśela*, is revived by a rare plant prescribed by a learned doctor from among the apes).

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Archaeological Evidence

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We know a great deal of pre-Aryan civilization, going back to the third millennium B.C., from the archaeological excavations at Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and many other sites in the Indus valley and in many other regions outside it. The discovery, in these sites, of manufactured implements and other objects of metals and alloys, glazed and decorated pottery and figurines, bricks made in kilns and engravings in precious stones, indicates a high level of knowledge of the physical and chemical sciences, likely to be matched by a similar knowledge of medicinal drugs and compounding. This is no doubt a mere conjecture, but the existence of a high level of social sanitation and of public hygiene in these communities is fully borne out by archaeological findings. Of the broad facts of town-planning, use of kiln-bricks, paved streets, municipal water-supply and drainage systems, public baths and hydropathic establishments and sanitary installations in private houses, there is abundant evidence. Water-proofed walls of baths lined with impervious bitumen, arrangements for draining and refilling public bathing tanks through conduits, enclosed bathrooms and water-closets made of brickwork connected with central water-supply and drainage, rubbish chutes emptying into external masonry receptacles (presumably cleared on a municipal basis), an efficient and elaborate drainage system running beneath the paved streets, spaced brickwork manholes of drains with removable lids, and soak-pits suggestive of sanitary privies of modern invention, all show a remarkably high level of public health activity and universal consciousness of sanitation without parallel in contemporary civilizations and, in fact, most other civilizations of historic times.

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It is invariably true that social medicine develops in any country only after a fairly high level of medical knowledge has already developed, which must have been the case with this ancient civilization of India. It is also true that the extensively studied archaeological remains of contemporary and comparable river-valley cultures in Egypt, the Middle East, China and Central America show no public sanitation comparable to the findings described above. Though this constitutes no real unassailable proof, the natural inference is that the medical knowledge of this early phase of Indian civilization was superior to, or at least comparable with, what obtained elsewhere in the contemporary world. The preserved specimens and written records in the form of hieroglyphics (which have been deciphered) of ancient Egypt show a knowledge of medicine which can compare with later Greek, Roman, Arabic and medieval European civilizations. Unfortunately, the large mass of pictographic characters on the seals and potteries of the Indus civilizations still awaits deciphering and we must wait for future success in this work—or another lucky Rosetta stone—to give us more data on the state of medical knowledge of the Indus valley and allied cultures.

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As mentioned earlier, the beginnings of the *Āyurveda* may be traced first in the *Ṛgveda* and then in the *Atharvaveda*; its nature and progress will be discussed in the next sections of this chapter. Both in its development, as also in the production of the famous medical compendiums of the later period, the methods and practices of the earlier period typified by the Indus civilization, it is reasonable to believe, exerted no mean influence.

Indian Medicine in the Vedic Period

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The Conception of Medical Science

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The oldest ideas of the Aryans on cosmic forces, origin of life, birth, death, sickness, pain, happiness and salvation are revealed in the Vedic hymns where rational ideas and insight are found to be continuously crystallizing out of a matrix of ignorance and superstition, even in the earliest *Saṃhitās*. Interwoven with archaic concepts of diseases, both of the mind and the body, as manifestations of the wrath of gods for sins committed or as possessions by demons,a to be cured by propitiation, ritual practices, sacrifices or exorcism, sorcery or charms,b we find logical speculations on the origins of diseases, use of healing drugs, beneficial treatment and surgery. There is also the clear emergence of the conception of the healing art as not a mere skill but as a social system tolerating many other ingredients such as the powers of magic and suggestions, ideas gained by experience and experiments, the social value of health, compassion to human suffering, scientific tenets and philosophical speculations. It is from these nebulous beginnings that the Āyurvedic conception of medical knowledge as a comprehensive science and philosophy of life developed later.

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During this period, the healing art was recognized as a part of the sacramental duties of the priests. The priest-sorcerers were the physicians, *par excellence*, though wandering medicine men, mentioned in the *Atharvaveda*, also practised medicine and surgery. The tradition of medicine as a part of the religious lore continued unbroken up to the later period of the Āyurvedic treatises, in which medical science is declared to be a *upāṅga* (part) of the *Atharvaveda*,c the physician a special votary of the same *Veda*d and also *Āyurveda* as an *upaveda* (secondary *veda*), forming part of the *Ṛgveda*.

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The Aryans personified the natural and cosmic forces as gods, and their influence was considered supreme in causing and curing illness. Water was the primordial element of the Aryans. 'In the waters is the nectar of immortality, and in the water is the potent curative powers.'e Divinity was also conferred upon plants with healing powers. The hymn, *oṣadhistuti* (ode to the healing plants), is addressed to *soma*, the moon god and the divine ruler of plants, and also a terrestrial plant from which sacrificial liquor was prepared.f

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An almost parallel conception of medicine is found in the sacred books of another branch of the Indo-Aryan community, the *Avesta* of the Iranians. The medical data of the *Avesta* are mostly found in the *Videvdat* dating from Vedic times. This book of the *Avesta*, also known as *Vendidād*, escaped destruction by Alexander the Great and was preserved in a Greek translation. The Spirit of Evil (*Ahira Mainya*) and other demons bring all diseases which can be cured by exorcism, *mantras* (holy chantings), sacrifices of cattle, and also by *baesajas* (drugs).

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a *AV.*, IV. 37. 10; VI. 20. 2; VI. 90; VII. 83; VIII. 2. 12.

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b *AV.*, VI. 113. 1–10; *RV.*, VIII. 47. 13.

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c *SS.* *Sū.*, 1. 3.

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d *CS.* *Sū.*, 30. 20.

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e *RV.*, I. 23. 19.

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f *RV.*, X. 97.

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Cures are effected by charms, imprecations against demons and sorcerers, sacrifices and propitiation of divine favour by the chanting of hymns and ritual practices. But a large number of plant remedies are recommended for curing diseases in many passages, mainly in the *Vājasaneyī*, *Taittirīya* and *Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitās*. The metals gold and lead and some animal products are also used as healing agents. Sunlight, milk and milk products, honey, etc., are recommended in some passages for their therapeutic and nutritive values. Surgery and surgical methods are described for a number of conditions.

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These contradictions of the primitive and the progressive, sometimes in the same hymns, no doubt indicate a transitional stage of medical knowledge, but some of the apparently irrational methods are possibly not as worthless as they appear at first sight. Vedic treatment often follows a set formula of propitiation of the angered gods, appeasement of malignant forces, magic formulas with the auxiliary use of material remedies like amulets, external applications and internal medicines. Along with this complex and concerted attack at many levels is a psychiatric approach in the shape of frequent appeals (by suggestions and mesmeric repetitions) to the patient who is constantly assured of progressive healing and ultimate cure. This psychosomatic view of physical as well as mental diseases and the deliberate employment of the combined mental resources of the healer and the patient were retained, though in a much modified form, in the later and more scientific system of Āyurvedic medicine.

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Despite its deceptive primitive garb, its obsession with magic and religion and its heavy leaning on irrational methods, Vedic medicine contains so much of rational observations and inferences and so much accurate medical knowledge that it almost merits the name of a science. Different ailments affecting the head, eyes, ears, heart, lungs and stomach, skin diseases, urinary complaints, progressive emaciation (consumption), external and internal abscesses, jaundice, rheumatism and neuralgia are listed in the early Vedic texts. Some of the diseases named are: *ailava* (eye diseases), *alaji* (inflammation of the eyes), *akṣata* (rupture or ulceration of the lungs), *apaci* (scrofula), *arśa* (piles), *āsrāva* (formation of pus), *balāsa* (chronic asthma or bronchitis), *harimā* (jaundice), *hṛdroga* (heart diseases), *hṛdyota* (malfunctioning of the heart), *jāyānya* (a type of consumption), *karṇaśūla* (earache), *kāśika* (chronic cough), *kilāsa* (leprosy), *kuṣṭha* (persistent skin diseases), *rājayakṣmā* (severe and progressive wasting disease), *sikatā* (calculi), *śīrśakti* (headache), *śīrṣāmaya* (diseases of the head), *takman* (fevers), *udara* (dropsy), *visarpa* (extensive skin eruptions), *visalyaka* (neuralgia), *viṣkandha* (rheumatism), *yakṣmā* (consumptive conditions), etc. Due to semantic reasons the English equivalents are subject to mistakes, and are at best approximate. In some cases their symptoms are described.

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The *saṃhitās* also name nearly 300 limbs and inner organs of the body of which a complete list is given by Filliozat.a The birth of a baby is described in the *Atharvaveda* and the physician is recommended, in case of complications in delivery, to operate upon the *mehana* (birth channel), *yoni* (womb) and *gavīnaka* (connecting canal).a Other surgical processes described or mentioned are incisions for boils, surgical relief of angry swellings caused by imbedded arrows, etc.,b treatment of fractures,c use of a reed as catheter to relieve painful or blocked urination,d surgical removal of an injured eyeballe and the replacement of a leg amputated in battle by an iron limb.f The last reference may be metaphorical rather than actual.

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a Filliozat (2), pp. 144 ff.

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The idea of rejuvenation (of the ageing body and its faculties) is first found in the *Ṛgveda*. *Āyuṣyāṇi* (measures and treatment aimed at maintaining perfect health of mind and body and also promoting *longevity*) is one of the twin aims of medical science according to the *Atharvaveda*, the other being *bhaiṣajyāni* (curative treatment by medication). Hygiene and dietetics are considered integral parts of medical knowledge and many passages are devoted to the preventive aspect of medical science. Milk is said to confer strength, nutrition, intelligence, brightness of complexion and also to help proper growth of the foetus, and hence recommended for the pregnant woman.g The benefits of *surā* (alcoholic beverages) and of *madhu* (honey) are also described in many hymns. Rice of good quality taken as a cereal is said to improve vital capacity and help infants to grow their milk teeth.h

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There is no attempt to classify the anatomical and physiological information nor are the diseases classified according to any scheme. There is, however, a rudimentary attempt at symptomatic treatment, the drug administered being chosen with an eye to its supposed ability of making good the visible deficiency.

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Medical Knowledge in Later Vedic Texts

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The medical references in the earlier *saṃhitās* are casual and fragmentary, but the later Vedic works are distinguished by a search for order and by speculations about origins and underlying causes. A number of passages contain plausible theories about the composition of living and non-living matter, the biological functions, the relationship of the *śarīra* (human body and organism) to its environment, the nature of the vital and motive forces in a living body, and other matters. The theory that the same five elements, *pṛthivī* (earth or solid), *apas* (water or liquid), *vāyu* (air or gas), *jyoti* (fire or radiant energy) and *ākāśa* (ether or empty space), constitute the human body (microcosm) as well as the macrocosm is accepted as axiomatic truth in many passages.i Life in its various manifestations is said to have three possible types of origin, *aṇḍaja* (oviparous), *jarāyuja* (viviparous) and *svedaja* (born by combined effect of warmth and moisture).a The *vāyu* (wind) in the human organism is classified into five types according to physiological locations and functions, and the idea of identifying *vāyu* with the nervous system (with motor and sensory functions and control of the seat of consciousness as well as the involuntary muscles) is clearly discernible.b Physiological data, presumably obtained by dissection, are found in many passages. The human body is supposed to contain, dispersed in all its parts, 100 *dhamanīs* (major blood-carrying tubes), 1,000 *hirās* (minor veins, etc.),c 72,000 *hitas* (extremely minute capillaries)d and 10,800 *pesas* (muscle-fibres).e The therapeutic values of milk and milk products are described in the later Vedic texts also; milk compounded with turmeric is recommended for jaundice;f freshly churned butter is said to be of great dietic value to children and pregnant women, but clarified butter is recommended for healthy adults;g clarified butter mixed with various drugs is given for preventing miscarriage.h

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a *AV.*, I. 11.

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b *AV.*, VII. 78. 1.

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c *AV.*, IV. 12. 1, 2 and 7.

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d *AV.*, I. 3.

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e *ṚV.*, I. 116. 16.

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f *ṚV.*, I. 116. 15.

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g *ṚV.*, I. 187. 9; *Taitt. S.*, VI. 2. 5. 3.

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h *AV.*, IV. 35. 5; VII. 140. 2.

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i *Ait. Br.*, ii. 3. 2. 2; *Ait. Up.*, iii. 5. 3; *Kauś. Ār.*, vii. 2. 2; *Tait. Up.*, iii. 2. 1.

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Some surprisingly advanced theories and valid observations are found in a work styled *Garbha Upaniṣad*, the antiquity of which has been doubted by many scholars. The suspect passages may also have been interpolated at a later date. It contains, among other things, a detailed description of the periodic changes which occur in the foetus during the period of gestation, a theory of metabolic changes occurring in the body and a list of the six different tastes, seven body elements (blood, flesh, fat, connective tissues, bones, marrow and semen) and three waste products (stool, urine and sweat). Even if this last evidence is ignored, Vedic literature furnishes us with an array of medical facts and theories which are impressive, considering their antiquity. This knowledge must have served as a valuable source material for the later science of *Āyurveda*. In fact, many of the physiological ideas are retained with modifications and elaborations in the latter.

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Medicine in Buddhist Literature

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The fundamental conceptions and observations on different subjects, scattered pell-mell in Vedic literature, were collected together under appropriate titles from the sixth century B.C. onwards in separate texts known as *sūtras*.

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Erudite and comprehensive treatises were also written on most of the subjects, and a part of this vast literature survives up to the present time. Followers of all religious faiths—Brāhmaṇas, Buddhists, Jains and others—contributed to this specialized literature. In medicine, the contributions of Buddhist scholars are of great significance and outstanding value. Nāgārjuna the medical author, the later Nāgārjuna (who composed many treatises on *rasacikitsā*, metallurgy and alchemy), Vāgbhaṭa, many of the Siddha authors of the iatrochemical school, and nearly all the medical missionaries who carried Indian medical science into Tibet, Central Asia, China and Ceylon were followers of the Buddhist faith. The contributions of the Buddhist scholars contain no new features differing basically from other works. In medicine, as in other branches of knowledge, there was no division on the basis of religion, for the Buddhists of these centuries were not an isolated community but characteristically and completely Indian in outlook.

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a *Ait. Up.*, iii. 5. 3.

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b *Brh. Up.* iii. 2. 2–8; *Chānd. Up.*, iii. 13. 1–5; v. 19. 23; *SS. Sū.*, 15. 1; *SS. Ni.*, 1.

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c *AV.*, I. 17. 1; VI. 90. 2.

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d *Brh. Up.*, ii. 1. 19.

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e *Gop. Br.*, i. 5. 5.

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f *Kauś. Sū.*, xxvi. 17.

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g *Ait. Br.*, I. 1.

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h *Kauś Sū.*, xxv. 12. 23.

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Some of the Buddhist canonical literature contain medical information interwoven with religious matter. The *Bhaiṣajyavastu*, forming part of volume 3 of the *Gilgit Manuscripts*, gives instructions regarding the use and dosage of medicinal drugs, classification of plant drugs, the useful parts of various plants, etc. But these follow Āyurvedic tenets and are of no special value. The *Cīvaravastu* (Part 2, volume 3 of the *Gilgit Manuscripts*) contains a long passage on the medical training of Prince Jīvaka (physician of King Bimbisāra, a contemporary of Gautama Buddha) and some marvellous cures effected by him. If the information in this work is accepted at its face value, difficult surgical operations called *kapāla mocana* involving removal of a portion of the skull and reaching the brain inside, eye surgery, curetting of the cervical region, removal of vaginal tumours, as also medical treatment of dropsy, internal tumours, varicose veins, eye diseases, etc., must have developed at this early age. The medical stories found in the *Cīvaravastu* and other Buddhist canonical works may not be true in all details, but they certainly give us an idea of the degree of knowledge—actual and probable, real or hypothetically possible—current at the time when these texts were composed, i.e. two or three centuries before the Christian era.

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Very interesting information is given about Jīvaka besides the above details of medical cure. He studied medicine at Taxila under a world-renowned physician for the prescribed period of seven years. But, before he was given the licence to practise medicine, he had to undergo a sort of practical examination prescribed by his teacher, who directed: ‘Take this spade and seek round about Takṣaśilā a *yojana* on every side, and whatever plant you see which is not medicinal, bring it to me.’ After a good deal of botanical investigations, Jīvaka could not discover any plant that was devoid of medicinal properties. The teacher was satisfied and gave him a little money with leave to go home and practise as a physician.a This story implies a current belief that all plants as well as reeds, water, stone and metals possess medical value, i.e. potentiality of healing. The same idea is found in the *Caraka Saṃhitā* which states that ‘each and every substance, due to its inherent and specific properties, can be utilized in some disease or other’.b Jīvaka also learnt the great value of meticulous observation and of valid deductions based on such observations. By observing the area over which an elephant had passed earlier, he was able to give many details about the animal and its rider and to correlate his deductions with details considered unimportant by others. This anecdote points out the value of accurate observation and deductions in the medical profession. Jīvaka also learnt that erudition and skill in the science of medicine should not merely lead to a lucrative practice but should be taught to others in order to benefit humanity.

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a Majumdar (R. C.), II, pp. 276-77.

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b *CS. Sū.*, 26. 12, 29.

Cites (20)