Ayurveda (science of life)

The editor says the work is also called Āyurveda śāstra because it sets out the truth taught by the omniscient Tīrthaṅkara; by knowing it all matters relating to a person's life span (āyu) become known, or it is like a veda for learning them, hence its other name, Āyurveda.

The editor cites chapter 1, verse 24: the science of medicine is composed to benefit the world, and its purpose is twofold, protecting the health of the healthy and freeing the sick from disease, all of which the work describes in brief.

The commentary explains that 'veda' comes from the root vid, whose meanings are knowledge, reflection and gain, and here means what reveals the true nature of things; joined with 'āyus' it names the science of wholesome, unwholesome, happy and unhappy life, the signs and measure of life span and the substances wholesome or unwholesome for life, so the name fits its meaning.

Medical science is said to be for the benefit of the world, with a twofold purpose: protecting the health of the healthy and freeing the sick from disease.

Medical science, like scripture, is said to be taught by authorities (apta), since it concerns things beyond the senses: scripture is the word of an apta, one whose faults are destroyed and who therefore does not speak falsely; the apta's innate qualities are unobstructed knowledge, detachment, lordship and dharma; and a verse that the text introduces as also in Charaka and calls the word of the sage Kapila names as apta those freed from rajas and tamas by austerity and knowledge, whose stainless knowledge of the three times is unobstructed and whose word is beyond doubt.

Medical science is therefore called a dharmashastra, practised as an expiation (prayashchitta) that uproots the great diseases produced by one's own karma.

Scripture is said to be the word of an apta, one who has wholly destroyed his faults and so cannot speak faulty untruth; the apta's four qualities, born with him, are imperishable knowledge, detachment, steady lordship and dharma. The translation also gives the marks of an apta in the view of the dharma-teacher Ishvara (free of rajas and tamas, strong in austerity and knowledge, knowing the three times, pure and imperishable) and of the sage Kapila (cultured and wise, speaking without doubt and always truly, being free of disease and ignorance).

This medical science, taught by aptas, is therefore scripture, called unseen proof (adrishta pramana) because it concerns supersensory things and valid because its teachers are valid; it is also a second dharmashastra, practised as an expiation to uproot the great diseases arising from one's previously acquired karma.

The introduction says Ayurveda describes treatment in eight limbs, kāya, bāla, graha, ūrdhvāṅga, śalya, daṁṣṭrā, jarā and vṛṣa, and that the Kalyāṇakāraka also sets out treatment by these eight limbs and describes them in full. It explains them as: kāya, treatment of the whole body made of dhātus; bāla, children's diseases; graha, a term open to several meanings, though all these diseases are said to arise from doṣa disorder in the sahasrāra and the nāḍīcakra; ūrdhvāṅga, also called śālākya, diseases of the nose, ears, throat and eyes; śalya, treatment with instruments; daṁṣṭrā, treatment of bites of snakes and other venomous creatures and of static or mobile poisons entering the body; jarā, treatment to regain youth, also called rasāyana; and vṛṣa, vājīkaraṇa.

The divine voice is said to have first described, in brief, the features of the person, of diseases, of medicines and the distinctions of time: the fourfold subject matter of the whole science.

The commentary says the whole science of Ayurveda is thereby divided into four parts, whose features, kinds and sub-kinds were described in brief.

The eight limbs of Ayurveda are listed as surgery (shalya), shalakya, toxicology (agada), bhutavidya, internal medicine (kayachikitsa), paediatrics (kaumarabhritya), aphrodisiacs (vajikarana) and rejuvenation (rasayana).

Its regimens are compared with religious discipline: fasting dominated by calm, abstaining from sexual intercourse, giving up tasty food, taking khala, yusha, yavagu, hot water and pungent, bitter, astringent, sour and alkaline things in measured amounts, restraining mind, speech and body, cutting off attachment and keeping vows that involve great bodily hardship.

As religious teaching, this science is said to teach purifying oneself by special external and internal practices, fasting with mild passions, abstaining from intercourse, giving up tasty food, taking khala, yusha, yavagu, hot water and pungent, bitter, astringent and sour things in measured amounts, restraint of mind, speech and body, oleation, excision and other procedures, and vows that involve great bodily hardship.

The introduction says no definite time can be given for the origin of Ayurveda, the science of life, because the need for it begins wherever living beings have life; since it is essential for sustaining society and all creatures, discussion of its gross principles begins wherever a few people come together to form a society.

It says that even entirely uneducated societies arrange some care for their sick, usually through priests who worship deities or practise mantra and tantra, as some village communities still do; such healing rests on the experience of a few people, becomes custom and makes little scientific progress. It cites Spencer's 'Nītiśāstra' and the book 'Nights of Toil' for details.

As society advances, it says, gifted physicians add their own skill and scholars research the deeper principles, so the subject passes from oral tradition (śruti) into compiled saṁhitās; the very word saṁhitā is said to show that such coherent compilations existed even before the Vedic period.

The introduction says the Ṛgveda, regarded as the oldest written book in the world, mentions many kinds of surgery, divine medicines, gems, jewels and tridhātu, and records that the Aśvin gods treated the consumption (kṣaya) that afflicted the Moon; the story of the sage Cyavana is said to support a formula that restores youth.

It says the Atharvaveda deals more with gems, mantras and medicines than with prayers and hymns, describes vaśīkaraṇa with and without mantras, and states in many places which medicine to combine with which for a given disease, so that knowledge of the properties of medicines has its origin here; names of body parts also occur in it. The Atharvaveda is counted the principal Veda of Ayurveda, Ayurveda being its upaveda.

The introduction says the saṁhitās of Agniveśa, Jatukarṇa, Kṣārapāṇi, Bhela and Parāśara are very ancient; Agniveśa's was revised and enlarged by Dṛḍhabala and Caraka and is known today as the Caraka Saṁhitā, whose language in many places resembles that of the Upaniṣads. Scholars argue, it says, that Caraka's date should be one thousand to one and a half thousand years before the Common Era, and it is hard to tell how much of the text belongs to Agniveśa, to Dṛḍhabala and to Caraka himself.

Note: Names written जंतुकर्ण and ़ारप्राणी (क्षारप्राणी) in the conversion.

It says the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika ideas in the first chapter, the section on proof that follows the three desires (eṣaṇā) in the eleventh chapter and the doctrine of momentariness in the Ātreya-Bhadrakāpyīya chapter seem to have been added when Caraka revised the text, since Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika had not arisen in the Vedic and Upaniṣadic period and the rise of the Buddhists is well known. The Caraka Saṁhitā deals mainly with internal medicine (kāyacikitsā) and treats both the theory and the practical work of treatment very well.

The introduction says that in the time of Caraka and Suśruta plants and animal parts were widely used as medicines, but for various reasons this practice fell back: rasa, metals (loha), secondary minerals (upadhātu) such as sulphur and mākṣika, and herbal kalpa preparations came to be used more in treatment, and surgery gradually declined.

It says Ayurveda was well sustained until the invasions of the Yavanas, Ārya, Jain and Buddhist monks working to preserve all eight of its limbs; after those invasions great seats of learning and the libraries of agrahāras were destroyed, and history records many libraries being burnt when Alauddin Khilji invaded the south. In the following millennium scholars lacked the peace of mind the science needs, and only scattered digests and compilations without novelty were written.

It says this damage was not repaired even under Maratha rule, later rulers were busy holding on to their thrones, and Indian Ayurveda received no royal patronage for its revival; only a small annual grant to one hakīm and one Gujarati vaidya under Śrīmant Nānāsāheb Peśvā is recorded, which it calls next to nothing for the growth of the science.

By contrast, it says that in the time of Candragupta and Aśoka hospitals and large dispensaries were built at many places in their kingdoms, so the eight-limbed Ayurveda flourished greatly. A footnote says this Candragupta followed Jainism, was a devoted follower of the Jain ācārya Bhadrabāhu, and took the great vows and renounced the world, citing the inscriptions of Shravanabelagola.

The editor summarises the work's own account of the origin of Ayurveda: in the assembly (samavasaraṇa) of Śrī Ṛṣabhanātha, Bharata Cakravartī and others ask the Lord for a remedy because, now that Bhāratavarṣa has become a land of action (karmabhūmi), many people, apart from those in their last body and those of upapāda birth who still have long lives, have short lives, suffer aggravation of vāta, pitta and kapha, cold, heat and wrong food, and do not know what to eat and what to avoid. Ādinātha, through his divine voice, then described in detail the features of the person, the body and its kinds, the origin of the doṣas, treatment and the divisions of time; afterwards his gaṇadharas, the later tīrthaṅkaras and the sages made Ayurveda known in the same way. The Kalyāṇakāraka is said to be composed from one drop of that ocean-like science and, being taught by the Omniscient, to benefit all.

The commentary says the whole of Ayurveda came down from Ṛṣabhanātha through Ajita and the others to Mahāvīra, all twenty-four Tīrthaṅkaras having taught it, and calls it vast, faultless, self-born, eternal and heard directly from śrutakevalins such as Govardhana and Bhadrabāhu.

A footnote says this Ayurveda was expounded by the Tīrthaṅkaras and is therefore Jain scripture (jināgama), learnt in turn by gaṇadharas and pratigaṇadharas, śrutakevalins and later sages, and that Ugrādityācārya presents the Kalyāṇakāraka on the basis of these traditional texts or as their essence.

The text names Pujyapada for shalakya, Patrakesari Svami for surgery, Siddhasena for toxicology and bhutavidya (pacifying graha afflictions), Dasharatha for internal medicine, Meghanada for paediatrics and Simhanada for aphrodisiacs and divine rejuvenation, each having set out his limb at length.

A footnote records that manuscript ka reads Simhasena in place of Simhanada.

The text calls this science set out by Ugraditya a weapon that pierces the vital points of karma; those skilled in it attain dharma, artha, kama and moksha, so one should protect one's health by it and attain the aims of life.

The author wishes that this Ayurveda, which clearly explains substances, is honoured and practised by great men, is pure in accord with Jain teaching and serves as a vow-like discipline for the welfare of all beings, may endure as long as sun, moon and stars; he calls it the essence of all the principles taught by the Jina.

The text quotes the saying that all actions of living beings are for the sake of happiness and there is no happiness without dharma, so those who seek happiness should practise dharma first.

Non-violence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy and non-possession are called very hard to attain and the roots of eternal dharma.

All the activity of living beings is said to be for happiness, and happiness is never had without dharma, so the wise who want happiness should first practise dharma, as learned men and the scriptures say.

Whoever knows this Kalyanakaraka spoken by Jinendra, joined with many excellent sections and bringing prosperity, is said to gain the aims of dharma, artha and kama in this world, to be saluted by all people, to have his lotus feet worshipped by all kings and to become (lord of the three worlds) the very lord of liberation.

One who does not study this science of health is said, his body afflicted by diseases produced by his own doshas, to be bound by karma through the many evil states that arise in his mind; therefore the study of Ayurveda is necessary even for munis.

This great science, the Kalyanakaraka, is said to have been spoken by Ugradityacharya, generous in virtues, and whoever studies it, bows to it and praises it is said to gain a brilliance like Ugraditya, the sun.