Eternal India Encyclopedia

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Ancient Concepts, Sciences & Systems

AYURVEDA

produced with the help of such measures as surgical operations, external applications of Ksharas (alkalies/caustics), cauterisation etc and in as much as it contains all that can be found in other branches of Ayurveda as well. Hence it is eternal; is a source of infinite piety, imparts fame and opens the gates of heaven to its votaries, increases the duration of human existence on earth and helps men in successfully fulfilling their mission and earning a decent competence in life.” The vast variety of Indian surgical instruments that were in use in the first millennium A.D. testify to the advanced stage which surgery had attained in ancient India. The field of surgery covered by Kashiraja Divadasa Dhanvantari in his lectures includes among others pre-operative measures, operative techniques and proce- dures, post-operative measures and care, the use of different kinds of sutures and needles; measures for the prevention of sepsis, different kinds of bandages and the art of bandaging, the use of alcohol to produce insensitiveness to pain during operations and amputations, the setting up of dislocations and fractures and the use of different kinds of splints. Among the various surgical measures taught by Kashiraja, mention may be made of lithotomy (surgery of the bladder to remove stone) and rhinoplasty (skin grafting to repair the nose, the cutting off of which was inflicted as a form of punishment for adultery. The skin grafting technique has since formed the basis for the development of plastic surgery in modern times. The basic textbooks of Indian medicine were compiled by phy- sician Charaka and the surgeon, Sushruta, the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita. They could have been written only after Indian medicine had reached a highly developed stage. The Charaka Samhita is an exhaustive work on therapeutic medicine. The Sushruta Samhita in 184 chapters deals with pathology, embryology and anatomy, therapeutic and surgical treatment and medicinal herbs. The treatises deal with over 600 drug compositions of plants and even of animal and mineral origin. Some scholars believe that Charaka lived in the 8th century B .C. since there is no mention of the Buddha (6th century B.C.) and his philosophy in his work. Others refer to a physician by name Charaka who was in the court of the Indo-Scythian king Kanishka (100 A.D.). There is no way by which the period in which Charaka lived can be established with certainty. What is undeniable is that the Charaka Samhita is a work of great antiquity which was put together and brought up to date by Charaka in his role as a redactor. There were earlier versions of the Charaka Samhita but in its present form it is taken as dating from the 1st Century A.D. The period in which Sushruta lived has been placed from 1000 B.C. to 4th Century A.D. The compilation of the Sushruta Samhita probably began in the last centuries before the Christian era but in its present form it dates from the 7th century A.D. That this Samhita in its present shape is the outcome of the efforts of more than one person is generally accepted It was in surgery that the ancient Hindus excelled. The Sushruta Samhita describes more than 300 different operations and 121 surgical instruments and tongs, forceps, scalpels, catheters, syr- inges, needles, saws, lances, hooks, scissors and probes. The surgeons conducted laparotomy, lithotomy and plastic operations. The book is the earliest document which gives a detailed account of rhinoplasty (surgery of the nose). Yet another feat was the precise

“We cannot cheat Nature or fool life. Short cuts, easy fixes, quick cures, wishful thinking, magic remedies and panaceas are not part of Ayurveda. Life demands tremendous integrity, self-discipline and self-awareness to take us beyond disease and sorrow. Ayurveda may not make things easier for us in the short term but in the long run it allows us to open up to the real energy of the cosmic life within us and to assume responsibility for our own existence. There is a magic in Ayurveda, but it is the magic of consciousness and moment by moment right action. Its magic is not that it takes us off the hook by solving our problems for us but that it gives us the right tools to effectively and finally dissolve them. ” from : ‘From the River of Heaven’ by David Frawley. According to the Bhagavata Parana, it was Bhagavan Dhan- vantari who revealed.Ayurveda or the science of life, to the world. This Dhanvantari, who was the original or the first, is known as Adi-Dhanvantari. He is worshipped even today as the presiding deity of medical science, the celebrated physician of the gods who first propounded the art of healing to the world. In ancient and medieval India, outstanding authorities on Ayur- veda, especially surgeons and experts in the treatment of the eye, ear, nose and throat, were honoured with the honorific Dhanvantari. The term Dhanvantari thus refers not only to the progenitor of Ayurveda but is associated with outstanding practitioners of Ayur- veda. Kashiraja Divadasa Dhanvantari, the King of Kashi (Varanasi) was believed to be the incarnation of Adi-Dhanvantari. He is a pre- historic figure who founded the famous school of surgeons. Sushruta, the famous surgeon, studied surgery under him. He is stated to have divided the entire range of Ayurveda into eight divisions (the Astangas) or specialities : 1) Kayacikitsa (Internal Medicine), 2) Kaumarabhrtya or Balacikitsa (Paediatrics), 3) Bhu- tavidya or Grahacikitsa (psychiatry), 4) Salakyatantra (Otto- Rhino-Laryngology and Ophthalmology), 5) Salyatantra (Surgery), 6) Vishatantra (Toxicology), 7) Rasayanatantra (Geriatrics), and 8) Vajikaranhatantra (The therapy for male sterility, impotency and the promotion of virility). It is not known if Kashiraja Divadasa Dhanvantari himself wrote any treatise on Ayurveda but his teachings were compiled in the work of his foremost pupil, the Sushruta Samhita. Sushruta quotes Kashiraja Divadasa Dhanvantari as telling his pupils : “Ayurveda originally formed one of the subsections of the Athar- vaveda and even before the creation of mankind the self-begotten Brahma strung it together. Together into a hundred thousand slokas, divided into a thousand chapters. But then he thought of the small duration of life on earth and the failing character of human memory and found it best to divide the entire Ayurveda into eight different branches”. The separation of Salyatantra (including Salakyatantra and other related disciplines of surgery) from the main body of knowl- edge under Ayurveda was due largely to Kashiraja Divadasa Dhan- vantari. He is quoted as having told Sushruta and his other dis- ciples who approached him in his hermitage in the Himalayas where he had retired after relinquishing his kingship and entering the third stage of life, Vanaprasthashrama, with the request that they be taught surgery:” Be it so. Hear me discourse on the Science of Surgery (Salyatantra) which is the oldest of the branches of Ayur- veda.... All hold this tantra to be the most important of all the branches of Ayurveda in as much as instantaneous effects can be