Bhesajjakkhandhaka (Chapter on Medicine)

by Hin-tak Sik | 2016 | 121,742 words

This study deals with the ancient Indian Medicine (Ayurveda) in Early Buddhist Literature and studies the Bhesajjakkhandhaka and the Parallels in other Vinaya Canons. The word Bhesajja means “medicine” and is the sixth chapter of the Khandhaka, which represents the second book of the Pali Vinaya Pitaka. Other works consulted include the Bhaisajya-s...

Putrid medicines were prescribed for use in ancient India, as described in the Vinayas.

Dharmaguptaka:—“At that time the Buddha was in Vārāṇasī. The five monks then rose from [their] seats, went toward and bowed down to the Buddha’s feet, [and] stayed at one side. [They] informed the Buddha: ‘What medicine should be used?’ The Buddha said: ‘[I] allow using the putrid medicine. A sick monk with a reason should use [it] till the end of one’s life.’”[1]

Mahāsāṃghika[2] :—“… The physician instructed: ‘[You] should consume the faecal fluid.’”[3]

“A monk was sick. The physician said: ‘[You] should consume urine.’”[4]

According to Nanshan Vinaya Dictionary 南山律學辭典, putrid medicine (Chinese: 腐爛藥 or 陳棄藥) has two meanings: urine and excreta, or dregs of used medicines.[5] [6] It is one of the four things of reliance (Chinese: 四依法) for a monastic member, the other three being ragged clothing, begging for food, and sitting under trees. Monks and nuns can use their own excreta or urine, or those of other monastics (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425. 504c15-16, 505a20-21). Āyurveda also includes many items of urine and animal dung as medicines or ingredients for making medicines. In the classical Āyurvedic texts, there is much information about different kinds of animal urine and their properties/effects. These urines are described to have multiple medicinal usages, such as alleviation of wind and phlegm humours, curing worms, antitoxic effects, and so on (Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 1. 92-105; Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45. 217-228; Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 5. 82-83). Although various types of animal excrement are mentioned as ingredients in medicinal recipes in Āyurveda, there are few details on the medical use of faeces. One piece of information is about the juice of cow-dung, which was used for treating poisoning cases and has a cardiac protective effect (Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 23. 46, 48).[7]

In terms of modern biology, urine and faeces are wastes from the body. They contain chiefly metabolic waste products, electrolytes, microbes and toxins. In modern medicine, except for use in investigative tests to help determine the pathology or diagnosis of a disease, they have no medical value or any therapeutic uses.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1428. 866c23-26: “爾時世尊在波羅[木*奈]國。時五比丘即從坐起,前禮佛足却住一面,白佛言:「當服何藥?」佛言:「聽服腐爛藥,病比丘有因緣盡形壽應服。」”

[2]:

These two pieces of information are not within the Chapter on Medicine parallel in this Vinaya.

[3]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425. 504c15: “...醫言:「應服大便汁。」”

[4]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425. 505a19: “比丘病,醫言:「當服小便。」”

[5]:

See Nanshan Vinaya Dictionary 南山律學辭典, s.v. “四依法腐爛藥制開” [accessed March 18,

[6]:

, http://buddhistinformatics.ddbc.edu.tw/glossaries/files/nanshanlu.ddbc.pdf].

[7]:

In contemporary Āyurveda, however, there is no mention of using urine or faeces as medicinal substances, and there are neither known scientific explanations about their usage, nor information about any components in them having therapeutic effects.

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