Cosmogonic Myths and Theoretical Science

Medical Arts in Ancient India

Artharvavedic Medicine

Early ideas on disease and healing were written down in religious texts such as the Atharva Veda, c.800 - c.400 bce Atharva veda means 'the Veda of the Atharvan' or the 'knowledge of Magic Formulas':

Mantras and chants were an important element of the Artharvavedic magico-religious tradition. The Vedic physician recited the chant in order to effect a cure. The taking of plants for remedies required propitiation for the violence done to them:

So knowledgeable were the physicians of India in toxicology that Alexander the Great is reported to have kept around himself as many of the Indians as were very skilled in healing, and had made proclamation throughout his camp that whoever was bitten [by a snake] should have recourse to the king's tent. [1]

Ayurvedic Medicine

From the early Artharvavedic system comes Ayurveda, sometimes described as a more "rational, scientific approach," a holistic medical system based on the concept of what the greeks called humours - that human disease is the result of an imbalance in three essential humours called doshas. This imbalance is revealed through pulse diagnosis, Nadi Vigyan. In Ayurvedic thinking, individuals tend toward a humoral type: Vata (ectomorphic), Pitta (mesomorphic) or Kapha (endomorphic). The pulse of someone with a Vata constitution is fast, feeble (like the movement of a snake); in someone with a Pitta constitution the pulse is regular, jumpy (like the movement of a frog); and the person with a Kapha constitution has a pulse which is slow, steady (like the movement of a swan).The ideal daily routine, seasonal routine, and yearly routine for a person of Vata predominant, Pitta predominant, or Kapha predominant physiology are also described in the Vedic literature. The work of the physician is to diagnose and prescribe remedies which restore the humoral balance. But true healing power is considered to reside in the mind. The literature adjures:

Sacrifice of Daksha

The oldest account of the ancient story called "The Sacrifice of Daksha," is found in the Vayu Purana. Daksha Prajapati (Lord of Progeny) is regarded as the creator of physical man and, in mythological terms, physical being implies the advent of disease. Daksha is the father of Sati (Nature), the consort of Lord Shiva. At a yagna (gathering) to which Lord Shiva is not invited, Daksha refuses to accept the supremacy of consciousness (Shiva) over the physical (Daksha) in an effort to claim a higher status for himself. Sati enters a trance and casts off her body in an effort to prove that she can consciously bring an end to the material body. But while in trance Sati falls into the fire. When the death of Sati is attributed to "demons" from the fire rather than to conscious effort, there is a great uproar among the Shaivites (followers of Shiva) who are routed and return to Shiva. Shiva sends Virabhadra and Kali (they are created by Shiva from his matted locks by smashing a strand onto the ground) to avenge Sati's death:

Daksha's head, being burnt in the fire, is replaced by the head of a ram (Kasi-Khanda). The ram's head and horns are a symbol of reproductive power - so it is that Daksha establishes an era of men engendered by sexual intercourse. In the ensuing chaos, the following diseases are engendered: gulma (tumours), prameha (diabetes), kushtha (leprosy), unmada (insanity), apasmara (epilepsy), raktapitta (haemorrhage) and rajayakshma (consumption).

The sacrifice of Sati became a ritual practice (now outlawed) of a widow's self-immolation on the funeral pyre of her husband. Temples called Sati-mata mandirs were dedicated to women who self-immolate - here they left their hand-prints

Indian medical arts are closely tied to Vedic Astrology as shown in this excerpt where Daksha curses the Moon who renegs on his marriage to the twenty-seven daughters to Daksha to marry his love, Rohini. Daksha's curse creates lunar rajayakshma (consumption):

The Moon goes down to Prabhaspatan (another name of Somnath), with his wife Rohini to worship the Sparsha Linga to free himself from the curse of his father-in-law Daksha Prajapati. Pleased with his penance, Lord Shiva, appears before him and frees the Moon of half the curse to regain a bright shining half of the moon.

This last mantra gives us yet another role for Daksha who, in his ram's head, appears in this section on children's diseases:

The medical arts in India are an example of the conscious effort over time to incorporate early religious (magico-religious) elements into later medical compilations.

References

[1] Kenneth G. Zysk, "Mantra in Ayurveda," Understanding Mantras, Harvey Alper ed., (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1991), p.127.

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