Nava Nitaka
The practice of Ayurvedic medicine entered a new phase when instead of the samhitas on medicine and surgery, compendia of prescriptions for various diseases began to appear. The first of such treatises which we have with us now is Nava Nitaka. This manuscript was discovered by a man of Kuchar, an oasis of Eastern Turkestan in Central Asia on the caravan route to China. This route was used by the Buddhist monks of India travelling to far off places. This man dug in the hope of getting some treasure in an area supposed to contain an underground city. He did not find any wealth but discovered a manuscript which was bought for a small sum by L.H. Bower, who had gone there qn a private mission from the Government of India. This manuscript was forwarded to J. Waterhouse, the then President of the Asiatic Society. It was deciphered and published by A.F. Hoernle, who spent 21 years on its study. Afterwards, the manuscript was sold to the Bodlein Library in Oxford.
Nava Nitaka manuscript by its name or by its contents has been mentioned by different authors between the tenth and the sixteenth century. After that, this manuscript has not been mentioned by anyone until it was re-discovered. The present manuscript is composed of very defective Sanskrit mixed with Prakrit. It was written in the Gupta script of the fourth or fifth century. The material on which it is written is birch bark, cut into longish folios like the palm leaves of southern and western India. The contents suggest Buddhistic influence in its composition.
According to Hoernle, the whole manuscript consists of not less five distinct parts. The author quotes from Charaka and Susruta and Bhela Samhita. The title ‘Nava-Nitaka’, meaning butter, is indicative of the manner of its composition; just as a small amount of butter is extracted out milk, so does this work contain the essential formulae extracted from other larger works. According to one scholar, the author of Nava-Nitaka was Navanita.
Nava-Nitaka for the first time gives details about the use of garlic various diseases such as consumption (rajya yakshma) and scrofulous glands in the neck. Tied with a thread, it was also hung on the door; this was supposed to check the spread of infectious diseases like small-pox. Garlic was recommended to be used in winter and spring.
Ashtanga Samgraha or Ashtanga Hridya Samhita
This book is still studied all over India, more so in the south. It is composed in a combination of verse and prose form. It was written by Vagbhata around the 7th century AD. It is predominantly based on the teachings of Caraka and Susruta Samhitas though it also gives its own views on different topics. Commentaries on Ashtanga Samgraha were written by Arunadatta about 1220 A.D. and by Hemadri a few decades later.
Ashtanga Hridya Samhita is divided into sutra , nidana, sharira, chikitsa, kalpa, and uttara sthana, and was also written by Vagbhata. It contains 120 chapters and the author quotes Charaka, Susruta Bhela, Nimi, Kasyapa, Dhanvantari and other earlier authors and their works; the chief source, however, is Ashtanga Samgraha. It s a complete but concise description of Ayurvedic medicine.
Particular stress is laid upon surgery. It does not mention the user of opium in the treatment of diseases and feeling of the pulse for diagnosis. Use of ‘killed’ (oxidized) metals is also not given in it. Sutra-sthana of Ashtanga Hridya is especially famous and popular. A popular later couplet says : “The best authorities in medicine are Madhava for nidana (diagnosis) , Vagbhata for sutra sthana (theoretical basis or general principles), Susruta for shrira (structure of the body) and Charaka for chikitsa (treatment).”
Ashtanga Hridya has all along been a very popular treatise. Commentaries on it have been written from time to time by as many as 35 important Ayurvedic physicians, each one interpreting it to the best of his knowledge and experience.
Ashtanga Hridya was translated from Sanskrit into Persian in A.D. 1473 by Hakim Ali Mohammed Bin Ali Ismaili Asavali Aseeli, and dedicated to Mahmood Shah I, the ruler of Gujarat.
Ashtanga Samgraha and Ashtanga Hridya, particularly the latter, indicate advancement in knowledge over the two samhitas of Charaka and Susruta. This is particularly noticeable in the new drugs and some of the new surgical procedures that have been introduced. These treatises of Vagbhata were extensively used and, in fact, they overshadowed the earlier samhitas to the extent that some portions of them were lost never to be recovered. Later writers like Sharangadhara, Chakrapanidatta and Bhavamisra quoted these treatises repeatedly in their works.
Rug Vinishchaya
Rug Vinishchaya, Madhavakara’s famous treatise, is written in simple language and style. It is easily understandable by ordinary physicians and became very popular and came to be known as Madhava nidana or simply Nidana. It specializes in the diagnosis of the diseases. The order in which it describes the causes, symptoms and complications of the important diseases sets an example for the future authors such as Vrinda, Vangasena and Chakrapanidatta. Its description of diseases shows a significant advancement compared with that of Charaka and Susruta Samhita.
A special chapter is devoted to small-pox, which previously was described only in a minor way. It, however, literally quotes, many a time, Charaka and Susruta, which shows the borrowing it made from these sources.
In later times, numerous commentaries were written on Madhava’s Nidana, which indicate the fame and popularity of this work. The most famous of these commentaries was Madhukosh by Vijayaraksita and his pupil Srikanthadatta in the fourteenth century. The other commentary Antak-darpan by Vachaspati also belongs to the later half of the fourteenth century.
The time of Madhavakara, son of Indrakara, cannot be stated with certainty. Vagbhata mentions Charaka and Susruta but not Madhava. Madhava, on the other hand, does not mention anything about Dridhabala’s edition of Charaka Samhita. So Madhava came after Vagbhata but before Dridhabala. Furthermore, Vrinda knew about Madhava. These indirect sources indicate that Madhava may have existed in the ninth or tenth century A.D.
Siddha Yoga
Vrinda composed Siddha Yoga probably around 1000 A.D. This treatise is a medico-chemical work which incorporates some of the material from Charaka, Susruta, Vagbhata, Madhavakara and Nagarjuna. This became very popular. A commentary called Kusumavali was written on it by Sri Kanthadatta around fourteenth century A.D. The commentator states that Sidha Yoga makes particular mention of the diseases prevalent in western India ; may be Vrinda belonged to that region. Siddha Yoga is in the nature of a samgraha and follows the methods of Vagbhata and others and gives a survey of the classical method of treatment. This is the first large treatise dealing with the prescriptions ; in it Vrinda prescribes mercury for internal use. Siddha Yoga of Vrinda was considered to be very important treatise. It was among the books translated into Arabic.
Rasaratnakara
Rasaratnakara deals with the preparation and use of metallic compounds, more particularly of mercury (rasa). It describes certain recipes in which vegetable or animal products are used to transform other metals into compounds which look like gold and could be passed off as gold. These compounds, particularly of mercury, were prepared and used in order to make the body undecayable and strong.
Rasaratnakara was written by Nagarjuna. From the internal evidence of this book, it appears, it is a work composed after the time of Vagbhata t.e., in the eighth century. Alberuni mentions of a Nagarjuna resident of the fort Daibhak near Somnath, who composed a book Rasayana. According to him, this Nagarjuna lived about a hundred years before his times. It appears, Natarjuna lived sometimes between the eighth and ninth century A.D. Nagarjuna composed some other works also, which include Kakshaputa Tanim and Arogya Manjari.
According to Dalhana, a commentator of Susruta, Nagarjuna reconstructed Susruta Samhita and added Uttara tantra to it. Nagarjuna was quoted as an authority on rasayana by later authors such as Vrinda and Chakrapani.
Until the seventh and eighth centuries, Ayurvedic drugs consisted mainly of vegetable products. Metals, such as iron, silver, tin and lead, were very sparingly used for medical purposes. Use of metallic compounds particularly began with Nagarjuna and it increased progressively.
Sharangadhara Samhita
The earliest Indian medical treatise to mention of nadi-pariksha (pulse examinations) is of the twelfth century. Written in the 13th century, Sharangadhara Samhita describes different types of pulse in different disease conditions.
Sharangadhara Samhita is not a tantric treatise though the author devotes the “Madhya khanda” to a detailed description of metals and their purification, mercury and the methods of ‘swooning’, ‘killing’ and fixing of mercury. It follows the orthodox system of therapeutics of the ancient classical authorities, but admits into the Indian pharmocopoeia, important drugs like mercury and opium, and utilizes them in therapy.
It also marks certain important advances in the physiology of respiration, in medical diagnosis and therapeutics. Sharangadhara Samhita was translated into Hindi, Gujrati, Bengali and Marathi; this shows that it was very popular.
Two commentaries on Sharangadhara Samhita were written: one by Adhamalla called Dipika in the thirteenth century, the second by Kashiram called Gurartha dipika in the sixteenth century.
Bhavaprakasha
To the middle of the sixteenth century belongs Bhava Misra whose treatise Bhavaprakasha is an important medical work. Bhava Misra is the last of the great men of Indian Medicine. He was the son o fLataka Misra and lived at Varanasi in the year A.D. 1550. He was considered as “a jewel among the physicians” and the best of the scholars of his time. He is said to have taught and trained at least 400 students in medicine.
In his important and voluminous treatise called Bhavaprakasha he describes the best of the available material of the previous authors and sets forth his own views and experiences. It is also divided into three khandas (parts) : purva, madhya and uttara. In it the author systematically deals with the origin of Indian medicine, cosmology, human anatomy, embryology, physiology, pathology, medicine, diseases of the children, surgery, Materia Medica, therapeutics, dietetics, rejuvenants and elixirs to prolong life. His clear style and excellent arrangement of the subject matter has thrown a flood of light on many obscure and disputed views of the ancient writers. He describes nadi-pariksha (examination of the pulse) and also the use of mercury and opium.
By the time of Bhava Misra, foreigners from European countries, particularly Portuguese, had started pouring into India to enrich themselves by commercial pursuits. Many of them, however, were suffering from syphilis and so passed on the .disease to the Indian population also. Indian physicians were quite unfamiliar with this scourge and all their previous medical treatises were silent on this subject, even though they did describe other diseases of the genital organs. A new name was needed for this malady and as this disease was brought into the country by the Portuguese, it was called Phiranga roga. Mercury in the form of calomel, catechu, Spilanthese oleracea and honey in certain proportions are the recommended medicines. Certain other recipes are also mentioned.
Bhava Misra’s Bhavaprakasha is still popular and is consulted by Ayurvedic physicians in India. He composed another small pharmacological work called Gunaratnamala. It mentions China root called Tobchini in the vernacular, as a remedy of “phiranga roga.” He was the first to mention certain drugs of foreign countries as badhkashani naspasi, khorabani and parasika vacha (Acorus calamus), sulemani kharjura (date fruit of Suleman) and opium. Surgery is mentioned only in brief.
A copy of Bhavaprakasha dated 1558, according to Jolly, was available in Tubingen.
*Source: A Concise History of Science, Atma Ram & Sons.
