Previous NextThe Medical Science of the Age 17 September 1967, Ranchi Published in: Discourses on the Mahábhárata Notes: official source: Discourses on the Mahábhárata this version: is the printed Discourses on the Mahábhárata, 2nd edition, version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition. (1) Now I will tell you something about the medical science in the Mahábhárata period. (2) According to ayurveda, when the balance of the body is lost due to the increase or decrease of váyu or pitta or kapha, disease starts. Medicine is applied to restore balance. If the amount of váyu 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 (dhátu) – váyu, 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 shástra of India which has been incorporated into the ayurvedik system included surgery. (3) And one more system is the homoeopathic system popularized by Hahnemann, a great man. In the ayurvedic 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 homoeopathy, 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 diarrhoea 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. (4) Allopathic treatment is a direct treatment of the disease. A particular disease is cured with the appropriate kind of medicine. (5) In India at that time, there was a mixture of ayurveda and vaedyaka shástra. But a strange thing is that homoeopathy incorporates the viśa cikitsá of that era, and through this viśa cikitsá 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 viśa cikitsá and the principle “Samah samam shamayati.” i.e., homoeopathy in an elementary form. Homoeopathy was not started by Mahatma Hahnemann, instead it was developed by him. (6) Viśa cikitsá is native to India, and its first reference is found in the Mahábhárata period. Later on this viśa cikitsá 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 viśa cikitsá to Lord Krśńa, i.e., viśa cikitsá was originated by Krśńa. And vaedyaka shástra was originated by Lord Sadáshiva. Actually, ayurveda was known to the Aryans earlier than Lord Shiva. But Lord Sadáshiva brought about a blending between vaedyaka shástra and ayurveda. (7) But the originator of viśa cikitsá was Lord Krśńa. In the Mahábhárata 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. (8) 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 Mahábhárata 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. (9) Surgery, which is considered to be a part of allopathy, is not really so; rather it is a part of ayurveda shástra. Since the time of Sadáshiva, it has developed a lot. In vaedyaka shástra, 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 shástra. This proves that surgery was very developed in that period. There is a very interesting example of surgery. The cousin of Krśńa (the son of the sister of Lord Krśńaʼs 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 (rákśasii) 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 childʼs body, the name of the child became Jarasandha. This proves that the people were well acquainted with surgery. (10) 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 Bhaskaracharya and not by Galileo. The law of gravitation was first discovered by Bhaskaracharya and not by Newton. We give incorrect training to children. (11) Hence you see that homoeopathy sprang up in India itself. Nor did surgery originate with Aryans, but in India. (12) 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 France, and so this system is known as “mesmerism.” But prior to Dr. Mesmer, this system was known to Indians. In India it was named “rákśasii vidyá.” In ancient India (by ancient India I mean the non-Aryans, the natives of India) there was a non-Aryan lady doctor, Kárkatii Rákśasii. This Rákśasii 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. (13) Hence we find that in the Mahábhárata age, there was surgery, ayurveda, vaedyaka shástra, viśa cikitsá, and homoeopathy; and people were not unacquainted with mesmeric treatment either. This proves that medical science was not underdeveloped. (14) 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, 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 affected, and because of this all medical science was affected. (15) 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, some time after Buddha, there was simultaneously an invasion from outside India, due to which ayurveda, vaedyaka shástra, viśa cikitsá 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 -- Source: The Medical Science of the Age Published in: Discourses on the Mahábhárata Release: Electronic edition version 9.0.19