Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita

by Nayana Sharma | 2015 | 139,725 words

This page relates ‘Royal Physician’ of the study on the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, both important and authentic Sanskrit texts belonging to Ayurveda: the ancient Indian science of medicine and nature. The text anaylsis its medical and social aspects, and various topics such as diseases and health-care, the physician, their training and specialisation, interaction with society, educational training, etc.

The Royal Physician

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Our sources also throw light on designated positions of importance for designated. One such coveted position was that of the physician to the king and the royal household who appears in epigraphic and textual records. Not all physicians are good enough to treat the royalty; it appears only the physician with special skills and expertise particularly in difficult aspects of treatment qualified for the designation. Our medical compendia are not at one regarding his qualifications. Here we may detect undercurrents of rivalry between physicians and surgeons.

Caraka says one who possesses the four-fold knowledge regarding cause, diagnosis, cure and prevention of diseases^[1] and the properties of all medicaments is entitled to be a royal physician.^[2] His competence would be attested to by his understanding of the aetiology, symptomatology and premonitory symptoms of a disease like consumption (śoṣa).^[3] The reason is not far to seek: this condition, also known as rājayakṣmā (king of diseases), is so named as because of its formidable nature among all diseases.^[4] Suśruta concurs that it is a serious disease (vyādhi mahābalaḥ) and is difficult to diagnose and eliminate (durnirvāra [durnirvāraḥ])^[5]

Suśruta, understandably, holds surgical skills and knowledge of difficult procedures, such as reconstructive surgery of the nose and the harelip^[6] and removal of foreign bodies from the tissues, indispensable for one aspiring to be the court physician. In fact, the surgeon should be knowledgeable about the two types of śalyas (alien objects), their five methods of entry, their sites of location in the skin, and other tissues and their management.^[7] Any extraneous body or substance lodged in the body that causes pain is a type of śalyas. We may imagine that members of the royal family would return from the battlefield with embedded arrows, darts, spears or such metal or wood splinters, and the physicians had to frequently attend to such cases. Other than surgical interventions, one of the important duties of the royal physician is to be ever vigilant to protect his sovereign against threats of poisoning not just enemies, but even from hostile kinsmen seeking an opportunity to settle scores. There is also the fear that a wife may administer some preparations to win the love of her husband which can have toxic effects or someone may send a viṣa-kanyā or poison-girls.^[8] Therefore, Suśruta says the king ought to be always protected by the physician against poisoning.^[9] The royal physician also has the duty of protecting his sovereign and the army by being vigilant against enemy attempts to poison the pastures, water bodies, edible items and the atmosphere when they make incursions into the country.^[10] Suśruta devotes eight chapters of his work in the Kalpa-sthāna section to Toxicology.

There is some textual and epigraphic evidence on the royal physician. Five Buddhist cave inscriptions from Pitalkhora refer to the visit and donations of the family of a royal physician, rājaveja or rāja-vaidya, Magila.^[11] We know from the Harṣacarita that the position was a hereditary one.^[12] This position being of considerable importance it will not be wrong to surmise that only trustworthy persons would have been appointed.