The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.17.2

c6.17.2

The *Gṛhya-sūtras* had admitted this participation (*Āśvalayanagṛ*, I, 3, 6; 12, 7), but it has been contested for a long time. This is evident from texts such as the *Viṣṇupurāṇa* and the *Harivaṃśa*. According to the former, Dhanvantari was a prince, born as a grandson of Kāśirāja, in the family of Āyus. In an earlier life, he had been born at the churning of the ocean and had obtained the right of being reborn in the family of Kāśirāja to be able to divide the Āyurveda in eight branches and become a participant in the sacrifice (*yajñabhāj*, IV, VIII, 4). The *Harivaṃśa* describes how after his birth from the ocean, he immediately demanded from Viṣṇu his part and place in the sacrifice; this request was not granted as the shares in the sacrifice had been fixed a long time earlier. As a compensation, he was promised divine status and cult in a second birth. He was, then, born as the son of a king of Kāśī (Kāśirāja) who had honoured him and he received the Āyurveda from Bharadvāja.¹ The texts further agree in making Divodāsa the great-grandson of Dhanvantari.² Under this form, the tradition offers us three personages where the Suśruta-saṃhitā knows of only one. Moreover, the fact that the oldest ancestor of the master of Āyurveda, Dhanvantari is known as Āyus, can lead us to think that the legend of Dhanvantari has been forged at leisure.