Hygiene and diseases (Introduction)

The precept of hygiene is of great importance in daily life and the ancient Indian medical authorities were well aware of it. Cleanliness has always been associated with purity and the absence of disease. Impurity occurs from a deficiency of naturalness while naturalness itself is the function of the innate properties of substances. When these properties undergo alteration, there is impurity. These impurities deprive plants of their innate good properties that are consumed as food and drugs.

It is noteworthy that we do not find a direct association between environmental variables and epidemics; which is to say that it is not the contaminated water, air or locale that directly cause epidemics but the deficiencies in the food and drugs arising from the variables lead to diseases. A direct correlation between contamination and disease is noticed elsewhere. Suśruta points out that turbid water causes oedema, anaemia, skin diseases, indigestion, asthma, cough, corrhyza, colic, abdominal swellings and enlargements and other serious diseases.^[1] Here clearly unclean water is seen as an agent of a host of disease. A direct correlation between uncleanliness and disease can be found in the context of affliction by external agents, usually known as rākṣasas, bhūtas and grahas. One of the conditions in which grahas are said to afflict children is where the mother and the wet-nurse do not observe cleanliness.^[2]

As one of the principal objectives of Āyurveda is prevention of diseases, it is befitting that rules for living healthily and harmoniously have been given much importance in the medical texts. One who remains free of diseases is known as svastha. The term “svastha” is composed of two words- “sva” meaning self or own and “stha” meaning stable or steady. Thus, svastha denotes self-abiding, being in one’s natural state.^[3] Caraka’s exposition on svasthavritta consists of the actions, habits or customs for maintenance of health and well being.^[4] A similar description occurs in the chapter titled anagatābādhāpratiṣedhaṃ (“Prevention of Diseases”) in the Cikitsā-sthāna of Suśruta’s compendium. These rules and procedures are actually various aspects of preventive medicine, not just for the limited purpose of keeping diseases at bay but also for ensuring mental, physical and social well-being. In this section we have discussed these aspects of an individual’s well-being as personal hygiene, mental hygiene and social health.