Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita
by Nayana Sharma | 2015 | 139,725 words
This page relates ‘Student of Ayurveda (2): The Initiation Ceremony’ 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 Student of Āyurveda (2): The Initiation Ceremony
The student is inducted into medical studies through the upanayana or initiation ceremony. The upanayana is an ancient ritual for it is known both in the Ṛg Veda and the Atharva Veda. It marked the beginning of primary education in Vedic times but later it came to be associated with secondary education.[1] Originally the term denoted the student’s approach to the teacher for the purpose of commencement of learning.[2] Its spiritual significance is described in the Atharva Veda. The ceremony takes three days during which the teacher holds within him the pupil to impart to him a new birth and regenerated life whence the pupil emerges as a dvija or twice-born.[3] The upanayana was confined for a long time to priestly or literary families. It became subsequently compulsory for the three higher castes for the later Smṛtis like the Manusmṛti assert that a person becomes a vrātya and consequently unfit for social and matrimonial dealings, if he does perform his upanayana before the time prescribed for his particular caste.[4]
The Āyurvedic initiation ceremony is a short ritual derived from the Vedic upanayana. It amounted to a sacred contract that imposed mutual obligations on the teacher and the taught.[5] It had all the elements of the Vedic ritual with the scared fire, the chanting of mantras and making oblations to the fire. Its importance is brought out by the fact that Caraka expressly prohibits commencement of study if the student has not been initiated by the teacher.[6] According to Suśruta, the initiation ceremony is conducted on an auspicious lunar day at a time when the stars and the moment are propitious. A four cubit piece of clean and plain land in a favourable direction is selected, smeared with cowdung, and kuśa grass spread over it. The gods, brāhmaṇas and physicians are then worshipped by offering precious stones, flowers and parched rice grains. After the selected area is demarcated and water is sprinkled over it, the deity Brahmā is placed in the southern direction and the sacred fire is set alight. In all possibility, an idol of Brahmā is referred to here. The yajña is performed by the Darvi homa method with four types of sacrificial sticks of khadira, palaśa, devadāru and bilva trees or of the trees having milky sap (nyagrodha, udumbara, aśvattha and madhūka) soaked in curd, honey and ghṛta. Oblations of ghṛta with a wooden ladle are made to the gods and sages with the chanting of the hymns. The student follows the actions of his preceptor simultaneously.[7]
Suśruta further says that a brāhmaṇa can conduct the upanayana of all the three higher castes. A kṣatriya could do so for kṣatriyas and vaiśyas, while vaiśyas may initiate one of their own varṇa. Sūdras had to be admitted without this ceremony for the chanting of the Vedas is proscribed in the presence of śūdras in the Manusmṛti.[8] As initiation involves the ritual of upanayana, the flow of education in the brahmanical order is necessarily always downwards. An individual could not take on the role of preceptor to a student of a caste higher than himself. However, this precept does not undermine the rational approach of education for all.
Caraka’s description of the ceremony is more elaborate, for which the student is required to gather several items and bring them with him. Initiation takes place at a time astrologically suitable, that is, on an auspicious day of the light fortnight of uttarāyaṇa (summer solstice) when the time is favourable, and the moon is in an auspicious position by virtue of its conjunction with the either of the Puṣya, Hasta, Śravaṇā, or Aśvayuk constellations.[9] On the day of his initiation, the student abstains from food. After shaving off his head and bathing, he puts on a dull red or yellowish red (kaṣāya) cloth approaches the preceptor with fragrant material in hand (or with scented hands). He is required to bring with him ingredients necessary for the ritual: dry twigs for offering oblation (samidhā), fire, ghī, sandalwood paste, water jars, garlands, lamp, gold, ornaments of gold, silver, jewels, pearl, coral, silk garments, paridhi (sticks of palāśa or Butea monosperma Kuntze of one cubit length to be placed in the four corners of the homakuṇḍa, which is, the hole dug for the sacred fire for offerings), kuśa (Demostachya bipinnata Stapf.), fried paddy (lāja), sarṣapa (Brassica nigra Koch), (unbroken dehusked rice), garlands made from white flowers as well as loose flowers, food articles which promote the intellect and sweet scented pastes.[10]
The suitable period for initiation ceremony, thus, are the months between the winter and the summer solstices. Wujastyk notes that the time of the day mentioned broadly squares with the times recommended for the initiation ceremony of the student of the Vedas (brahmacārin) in the Gṛhyasūtras, for example the bright part of the month, and the lunar mansions of Tiṣya, Hasta, Śravaṇā or Aśvayuj.[11] Suśruta’s directions are quite cryptic on this issue for the text says that the brāhmaṇa should select an auspicious day, and a time when the part of the day (karaṇa), moment (muhūrta) and the lunar constellation (nakṣatra) are all propitious.[12] The vagueness of Caraka’s (and one may add Suśruta’s) recommendations let us assume that the days and the times prescribed are not specific to the medical tradition.[13]
Certain other similarities with the brahmanical initiation may be noted. The student approaches the teacher with a number of items, one of them being firewood. The Upaniṣads frequently mention pupils approaching their teacher with fuel in hand, as a token that he is ready to serve the teacher and tend his household fire.[14] Tending the sacred fire was one of the duties of the brahmacārin, whose spiritual significance is explained in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, viz., “to enkindle the mind with fire, with holy lustre.”[15] Shaving and bathing are also prescribed for the brahmacārin prior to initiation.[16]
We may note that the initiation ceremonies of the Vedic and the medical student differ in certain significant aspects. The age and even the season of initiation for the Vedic student differed according to the varṇa (Sāṅkhāyana Gṛhyasūtra[17]; Āpastamba Dharmasūtra[18]). The approved colour of the dress is yellowish red or kaṣāya for the medical student which is the colour recommended for the brāhmaṇa students in the Dharmasūtras.[19] These texts prescribe madder red (māñjiṣṭha) garment for the kṣatriya and turmeric yellow (hāridra) garment for the vaiśya. An upper garment of animal skin (ajina), a girdle (mekhalā), the sacred thread/cord (yajñopavita) and the daṇḍa (staff) in hand are mandatory for the Vedic student but not for the medical student. The material of the girdle, the wood of the staff and its length are all varṇa specific.[20] Such varṇa specific connotations are missing in our two medical texts at least in matters of appearance, and the absence of reference to differently coloured clothing for the medical students seems to indicate that outward signifiers of varṇa differentiation had no place in the medical community. The absence of variations in ceremonial details of the procedure for the three varṇas is significant.
The mention of precious metals, gems and silk garments raises the question if the study of medical science could at all be pursued by those who were not well off. Cakrapāṇidatta adds that it is only the offerings out of the personal efforts or earnings of a disciple which can have auspicious and fruitful effects.[21]
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
A.S. Altekar, Education in Ancient India pp.7-8.
[3]:
R.K. Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education, p. 67.
[4]:
R.K. Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education, p.10.
[5]:
M.S.Valiathan, The Legacy of Caraka, p.lxxxiii.
[6]:
Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 8.24.
[7]:
Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 2.4.
[8]:
Manusmṛti IV.99.
[9]:
Caraka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.9.
[10]:
Caraka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.9.
[12]:
Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 2.4.
[13]:
D. Wujastyk, Well-Mannered Medicine, p.80.
[14]:
R.K. Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education, p. xxix.
[15]:
R.K. Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education, p.84.
[16]:
[17]:
Sāṅkhāyana Gṛhyasūtra II.1.1-5.
[18]:
[19]:
Āpastamba Dharmasūtra I.3.41.
[20]:
Sāṅkhāyana Gṛhyasūtra II.1.15-23.
[21]:
Cakrapāṇidatta on Caraka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.9-10.