Ayurveda    
Text and History of Ayurveda – 3
A Hindu Heritage of Healing 

Two areas of contribution of Indian physicians were in treating snakebite and prevention of small pox. Detailed account of steps to be followed after a poisonous snake bite including application of tourniquet and lancing the site by connecting the two fang marks and sucking the poison out is described. A decoction of the medicinal plant Rauwolfia serpentina is next applied to the wound.

A form of vaccination for small pox was commonly practiced in India long before the West discovered the method. A small dose of pus from the pustule of small pox lesion was inoculated to develop resistance. Such methods of building immunity were practiced in other fields as well, against other diseases in order to develop antibodies against the infecting organism or a poison.    

Charaka Samhita

Charaka was said to have been in the court of the Kushana king, Kanishka during the 1st century A. D. Some authors date him as far back as the 6th century B.C. during Buddha period. The sacred trust between physician and patient was held in high esteem by Charaka and patient confidentiality, similar to the Hippocratic Oath, was deemed the proper conduct for a practicing physician. Charaka also told us that the word Āyurveda was derived from Āyus, meaning life and Veda. Nevertheless, according to Charaka the word Āyus connotes more than just life. Āyus denotes a combination of the body, sense organs, mind and soul. The principles of treatment in Charaka’s teachings took a holistic approach that treated not just the symptoms of the disease but the body, mind and soul as single entity.

Compiled by Charaka in the form of discussions and symposiums held by many scholars, Charaka Samhita is the most ancient and authoritative text that has survived. Written in Sanskrit in verse form, it has 8400 metrical verses. Following the Ātreya School of Physicians, the Samhita deals mainly with the diagnosis and treatment of disease process through internal and external application of medicine. Called Kaya-chikitsa (internal medicine), it aims at treating both the body and the spirit and to strike a balance between the two. Following diagnosis, a series of methods to purify both the body and spirit with purgation and detoxification, blood letting and emesis as well as enema (known as Pancha-karma) are utilized. The emphasis seems to be to tackle diseases in the early phase or in a preventative manner before the first symptoms appear.

Āyurvedic diagnosis and treatment is traditionally divided into eight branches (sthanas) based on the approach of a physician towards a disease process. Charaka described them thus:

1. sūtra-sthāna, general principles
2. nidāna-sthāna, pathology
3. vimāna-sthāna, diagnostics
4. sharīra-sthāna, physiology and anatomy
5. indriya-sthāna, prognosis
6. chikitsā-sthāna, therapeutics
7. kalpa-sthāna, pharmaceutics
8. siddhi-sthāna, successful treatment.

– Continued

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