Medicine in the Mahabharata age.

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Didi Ananda Ruchira <a.ruchira

Thu Sep 8, 2005 6:49 pm

Medicine in the Mahabharata age.

 

Greetings,

 

Those scholars among us may find this essay from my spiritual Master, Shrii

Shrii Anandamurti (1923-1990) of interest. From my side I have no comment.

 

It is an excerpt from his book "Discourses on the Mahabharata"

(Nb. the Mahabharata is an epic story on which incorporates the life of Lord

Krsna and the Bhagavad Giita. Krsna, a great master was historical, though

elevated to the status of God by Hindus. Mahabharata is about 3500 years old)

 

I've added [brackets] for clarification only.

 

========

THE MEDICAL SCIENCE OF THE AGE [of the Mahabharata]

 

According to ayurveda, when the balance of the body is lost due to the increase

or decrease of vayu or pitta or kapha, disease starts. Medicine is applied to

restore balance. If the amount of vayu or pitta decreases, medicine is applied

to increase it ; if the amount of vayu or pitta increases medicine is applied to

decrease it. This is the ayurvedik system of medicine. In the unani system, a

similar system of medicine, there are four factors (dhatu) -- vayu, pitta, kapha

and rakta. The difference between the two systems is that in the unani system

one more factor, i.e., rakta, has been added. The other three factors are the

same. In both systems crude medicine is applied and surgery ( shalya cikitsa )

is simply nominal. In the pure ayurvedik system there is no surgery. But the

vaedyaka shastra of India which has been incorporated into the ayurvedik system

included surgery.

 

And one more system is the homeopathic system popularized by Hahnemann, a great

man. In the ayurvedik system and in the unani system the medicine is applied not

to treat the disease but to bring about a balance among the aforesaid factors.

In homeopathy, too, whose principle is "Samah samam shamayati" (like cures

like), the disease is not treated, but the symptom of the disease is treated. No

matter whether the disease is diarrhea or malaria, the symptom is treated and

not the disease. Moreover, the medicine is applied in a subtle form. It is

theorized that the subtle affects the crude, hence subtle medicine is applied to

cure the crude disease. The more subtle the medicine, the more effective the

result on the crude disease.

 

Allopathic treatment is a direct treatment of the disease. A particular disease

is cured with the appropriate kind of medicine.

 

In India at that time, there was a mixture of ayurveda and vaedyaka shastra

[medical treatises]. But a strange thing is that homeopathy incorporates the

visa cikitsa [a type of treatment] of that era, and through this visa cikitsa

people were familiar with the principle "Samah samam shamayati." For instance,

the Kaoravas gave poison to Bhiima, and people announced that he had died. But

the experts in ayurveda gave injections of poison to Bhiima, by which he was

cured. This proves that people had the knowledge of visa cikitsa and the

principle "Samah samam shamayati." i.e., homeopathy in an elementary form.

Homeopathy was not started by Mahatma [Great Soul] Hahnemann, instead it was

developed by him.

 

Visa cikitsa is native to India, and its first reference is found in the

Mahabharata period. Later on this visa cikitsa was encouraged not by Aryans, but

rather by non-Aryans, and South India, especially Malabar, saw it expand a lot.

These people attribute the origin of visa cikitsa to Lord Krsna, i.e., visa

cikitsa was originated by Krsna. And vaedyaka shastra was originated by Lord

Sadashiva [about 7000 years ago]. Actually, ayurveda was known to the Aryans

earlier than Lord [sada]Shiva. But Lord Sadashiva brought about a blending

between vaedyaka shastra and ayurveda.

 

But the originator of visa cikitsa was Lord Krsna. In the Mahabharata period, it

was appreciated a lot, and people discussed it and practised it by applying

different venoms such as the venom of the snake, the venom of the spider, the

venom of the scorpion, etc., to cure snake bite, spider bite, scorpion bite,

etc. In course of time, it was neglected. At last it had some place in the royal

family of Cochin. This system is neglected nowadays, but if it is encouraged, a

new system will be added to medical science.

 

Perhaps you know arkavana ( arkapatra ), generally found in a cremation ground.

If this is used either externally or internally, the eye becomes defective. But

it was discovered in the Mahabharata period that if that same arkavana is used

in a subtle form, it is a very good medicine for various eye diseases. The same

system of "Samah samam shamayati," i. e., poison roots out poison, is there.

 

Surgery, which is considered to be a part of allopathy, is not really so ;

rather it is a part of ayurveda shastra. Since the time of Sadashiva, it has

developed a lot. In vaedyaka shastra, it is also explained how a dead body is to

be studied by students. The structure of the human body, how to keep it clean,

how it decomposes, is all explained in vaedyaka shastra. This proves that

surgery was very developed in that period. There is a very interesting example

of surgery. The cousin of Krsna (the son of the sister of Lord Krsna's father)

was Jarasandha, the king of Magadha, with his capital at Rajgir. At the time of

the birth of Jarasandha, the child had to be cut out of the womb. People saw

this child and threw it in the cremation ground. Then there came a very famous

non-Aryan (raksasii) lady doctor known as Jara. She stitched the child in a

proper surgical operation and saved it. Since the lady Jara joined (sandhi) the

pieces of the child's body, the name of the child became Jarasandha. This proves

that the people were well acquainted with surgery.

 

It is improper to think that everything in India has come from abroad. I have

told you that Bhaskaracarya first discovered that the earth was round, and not

Copernicus. That the earth is moving was first discovered by Bhaskaracarya and

not by Galileo. The law of gravitation was first discovered by Bhaskaracarya and

not by Newton. We give incorrect training to children.

 

Hence you see that homeopathy sprang up in India itself. Nor did surgery

originate with Aryans, but in India.

 

Suppose there are two persons. If the mind of either of them is stronger, it

will control the other mind and the controlled mind will follow the stronger

mind. The stronger mind imposes itself on the other mind either directly or by

some artificial means indirectly. Because of the effect of the stronger mind,

the controller mind utilizes its mental power against the disease and gets free

from it. This sort of treatment by hypnotic spell, people say, was started by

Dr. Mesmer [of Austria], and so this system is known as "mesmerism." But prior

to Dr. Mesmer, this system was known to Indians. In India it was named "raksasii

vidya." In ancient India (by ancient India I mean the non-Aryans, the natives of

India) there was a non-Aryan lady doctor, Karkatii Raksasii. This raksasii was

very famous for her mesmeric treatment. This sort of treatment should therefore

not have been known as "mesmerism" -- it should have been known as something

different.

 

Hence we find that in the Mahabharata age, there was surgery, ayurveda, vaedyaka

shastra, visa cikitsa, and homeopathy ; and people were not unacquainted with

mesmeric treatment either. This proves that medical science was not

underdeveloped.

 

You can pose the question -- if medical science was developed so much, why was

it destroyed? The main reason was that touching the dead body, learning about

the physical structure of the skeleton of the dead body, etc, was not considered

to be lowly by the people of the early Buddhistic age; but after Buddha [2500

years ago], people began to take it as lowly. Touching the dead body was

considered to be most undesirable. This affected medical science a lot. Surgery

especially was much effected, and because of this all medical science was

affected.

 

Six or seven hundred years after Buddha, Buddhists once again discussed medical

science a lot and tried their best to develop it But immediately after Buddha it

was completely discouraged, and medical science in India had its downfall.

Moreover, when people did start to develop medical science, sometime after

Buddha, there was simultaneously an invasion from outside India, due to which

ayurveda, vaedyaka shastra, visa cikitsa and surgery were discouraged in India

and the unani (hakimii ) System of medicine began to take root. Because the

hakimii system was not much cultivated in this country, the downfall of India as

far as medical science is concerned, occurred.

 

17 September 1967, Ranchi, India

 

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Didi Ananda Ruchira, Abha Light

visit: www.abhalight.org

tel: +254 20 445-0181 / cells: 0733-895466 / 0723-869133