Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita

by Nayana Sharma | 2015 | 139,725 words

This page relates ‘identity of Caraka’ 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 identity of Caraka

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The identity of the redactor of Agniveśa-tantra remains uncertain despite the mass of references to Caraka [Charaka] in other texts unearthed by historians. The name is well known in Vedic literature but has varying connotations. It is a family name in sacred texts^[1] : the Carakas were the adherents of one the schools (śākhā) of the Black Yajurveda. One of the recensions of this text, the Kāṭhakasaṃhitā, may be connected with the Carakas.^[2] There is also the view that Caraka primarily denotes a “wandering student”, a sense actually found in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaṇiṣad.^[3] It is generally held that Caraka is derived from the root “car’ meaning “to roam” or to “move about”. In fact, it is usually used as a descriptive epithet of many wandering sects in ancient India which included the physicians. One of the lost recensions of the Atharvaveda is called Cāraṇa-vaidya or “roving physicians”.^[4] In course of their search of healing drugs, physicians had to move about.^[5] The term “caraka” occurs in the Nasik inscription of Uṣāvadāta recording various gifts he made to brāhmāṇas.^[6] It mentions congregations of carakas (caraka parṣabhyaḥ) in four places which Buhler notes may mean “congregations of wandering Brahmanical students” or “assemblies of Brāhmaṇas studying the charaka śākhā.” Hoernle feels that the former meaning is more probable.^[7]

We also come across the term Carakācārya in the Taittariya Brāhmaṇa which is interpreted by Sāyana as the teacher of the art of walking on bamboo poles, a kind of dancer, which would point to a person of low social origin.^[8] In the Vājsaneyīsaṃhitā, a carakācārya is enumerated as one of the sacrificial victims at the Puruṣamedha or human sacrifice.^[9] Macdonell and Keith regard the carakācārya as a teacher of the Caraka school.^[10] The sūtras of Pāṇini also refer to Caraka but it is reasonable to conclude that the name is of the person of the Vedic line and not of the medical Caraka.^[11] The term has also been used to indicate a glutton or a spy. As “car’ also means to eat, carakācārya may also mean a “teacher of the eaters”.^[12] In the Naisādhyacarita, caraka has been used to indicate a spy.^[13]

Thus, the term Caraka has thrown up a plethora of meanings but without any concrete association with medicine. One passage in the Taittarīya-saṃhitā censures the heavenly physicians, the Aśvins, as they roam about (cara) among men. This is the only possible evidence of a relationship between the Caraka-śakhā and medical practitioners. We have discussed the implications of this passage for the medical profession in the second chapter. Nevertheless, as Meulenbeld points out, a convincing relationship between a Vedic school and the medical tradition and with Caraka, the medical authority in particular, cannot unequivocally be demonstrated.^[14] It is also probable as Rudra, the commentator on the Bṛhajjātaka writes, any learned physician who went about as an itinerant mendicant was known as Caraka.^[15] The Lalitavistara and other Buddhist texts know of such wandering mendicants who are mentioned along with śramanas, tīrthikas and parivrājakas.^[16] Chattopadhyaya is not convinced that Caraka is the proper name of the intermediate editor of the text; rather he says it makes better sense if it is viewed as a compilation of medical knowledge of the ancient roving physicians.^[17] Given the brahmanical bias against the practice of wandering about, the brahmanical slant of the text has to be attributed to later superimposition by the priestly class or as Chattopadhyaya describes as ransom offered to religion by physicians.^[18] This proposition is itself problematic as we shall see later. Caraka as the clan or gotra name or a personal name^[19] cannot be entirely ruled out.

There have also been attempts to identify Caraka with the physician of Kaniṣka on the basis of discovery of two Chinese Buddhist texts by S. Levi. According to one of the texts, he saves the queen on two occasions during childbirth by means of his obstetrical skills.^[20] There is little internal evidence in the compendium to support this identification.^[21] Besides, as a specialist in internal medicine, he is hardly likely to be displaying his proficiency in gyneacology.

The overwhelming evidence for wandering mendicant medical practitioners notwithstanding the question arises whether they belonged to the same school as that of Agniveśa-Caraka. There is little evidence within the text for the practice of an itinerant way of life barring that Punarvasu Ātreya is depicted in seven different places within the northern mountains and valleys. It is interesting to note that the Caraka Saṃhitā denounces pseudo-physicians who moved about from one street to another in search of livelihood in the garb of physicians.^[22] They move around due to the lack of vigilance on the part of the rulers.^[23] Rather the text enumerates the qualities of the royal physician.^[24] Even the hospital establishment described in the text is intended for the royal patient or for the well-to-do.^[25] The treatment process incorporating oleation, fomentation, emesis and purgation are long-winded and meant for the affluent.^[26] The processes are often repeated requiring long observation of the patient for complications and side effects. Therefore, it appears difficult to accept the treatise was redacted by one who was a member of the itinerant ascetics.

Though it the name of Caraka appears only in the colophons at the end of the chapters and not in the main body of the text, there is no doubt that he was considered a great medical authority by later scholars like Vijayarakṣita (13^th century), Vācaspati and Śivadāsa in the 14^th -15^th centuries, and so on.^[27] Eminent physicians were called Caraka by way of compliment and so Vāgbhaṭa was given the title, Caraka of Sind or Sindhicara.^[28]

Other than the question of the identity of Caraka, another issue that has perplexed historians is the change of the title of treatise from Agniveśa-tantra to Caraka Saṃhitā. The treatises of Suśruta and Kāśyapa despite undergoing redaction did not see a similar alteration. Sharma argues that Caraka did not just retouch the original text but completely recast it giving it a complete new shape and form. However, it gained acceptability only after some centuries for the Navanītaka refers to Agniveśa but not to Caraka.^[29] The redacted treatise was only partially available to Dṛḍhabala which may imply it did not gain wide currency in medical circles.^[30]