Rudra-Śiva in the Medical Texts

The Caraka Saṃhitā gives Rudra-Śiva the epithets of bhutānāmadhipam (the supreme controller of all bhūtas) and jagataḥ pramukham (omnipotent master of the universe).^[1] References to Śiva in the medical texts occur in association with a few diseases, principally with fever, which is termed sarvarogāgraja or the foremost among the diseases.^[2] Its mythological origin is traced to the ferocious wrath of Rudra (rudrakopa).^[3] Fever owes its origin to the fire-like anger of Rudra by which of which it afflicts all living beings^[4] and it does not spare the gods. Consequently, he is first deity to be propitiated for its cure.^[5] The worship of Rudra-Śiva with his retinues is also advised in exogenous type of psychic disorder (bhūtonmāda)^[6] and epilepsy.^[7] Though Caraka does not mention worship of Śiva in the chapter on epilepsy, similar therapeutic measures are prescribed for psychic disorders and epilepsy.^[8] Śiva is worshipped before administration of some enema recipes.^[9] Ḍṛḍhabala, the editor of Caraka Saṃhitā, was a worshipper of Śiva.^[10]

The formidable character of Rudra is known early in the Ṛgveda itself. He is an archer who also wields the lightning the thunderbolt.^[11] He is a protector of the frontier whose arrows are dreaded. His arrows are sought to be kept at bay by prayers to the deity.^[12] The poets implore him to keep the villages free of illness,^[13] and grant health to the men, women and livestock.^[14] Afflictions of cough, fever^[15] and poison^[16] are attributed to him. Even in the Mahābhārata he is called Rudra (fierce) because whatever is burning, sharp, harsh and mighty in flesh, blood and marrow is his.^[17] Rudra, however, bears a dual character; for the poet says that while he inflicts harm on men and beast alike, the very gracious god also cures with a thousand medicines.^[18] He is hailed as the best of physicians.^[19] His drugs are called Jalāṣabheṣaja.^[20] Jalāṣa is explained variously as the Soma or as the rain.^[21] Early in the gveda, therefore, like the rest of the gods of the Aryan pantheon, he is a benign god to whom people fled in distress, seeking grace and protection,

wealth and welfare.^[22]

The Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā calls him the first exponent of divine remedies which they are efficacious in removing arrows and healing wounds.^[23] He is invoked for the remedy of various diseases including consumption.^[24] Keith points out that the healing element in Rudra’s nature is not a minor one.^[25] Besides being invoked as Paśupati (protector of animals) in the Atharvaveda,^[26] he is the lord of trees, Vṛkṣapati and Vanaspatinām pati the Mahābhārata.^[27] An Atharvaveda hymn pays homage to Rudra as Agni in the fire, who dwells in the floods, the herbs and the plants, and who has formed and fashioned all these worlds.^[28]

It is noteworthy that the association with the plant world occurs in correlation with the Moon or Soma who is addressed as king of the plants in Taittariya Saṃhitā. The lunar group of gods is associated with the vegetation world and Rudra is a lunar deity. The moon in all mythologies is associated with death, the next life, vegetation and the plant world-in all these capacities the moon’s function is essentially bound up with that of Yama and Śiva. Soma was later relegated to a place in the Śiva scheme, became an associate and an ornament of Śiva.^[29]

Bhattacharji explains the correlation of this group with the plant life. The links between Rudra and vegetation are established through the lunar deities like Yama and Soma. From observing nature man came to believe that matter does not perish altogether at death; rather it is conserved and assumes a different from. “Hence, death does not utterly destroy life but the buried body is regenerated in the shape of whatever comes out of the soil-plants or snakes… Vitality is energy, and energy does not die but merely changes its form.” Thus, the root of the belief which connects plants with Rudra seems to be the concept of a single subterranean vital spirit which animates plants and men. This vital spirit is provided by the corpses. The world of the dead is controlled by the lunar deities like Śiva and Yama with their female counterparts, Durgā and Yāmī-Nirṛti, who also came to control the vegetation world.^[30]

Through his followers, Śiva has association with the world of the macabre. Among the several uncharitable epithets of Rudra occurring in the Śatarudrīya hymn of the Yajurveda is that of “night rover”.^[31] It has been suggested that the “night rovers” may obliquely refer to ancestor spirits who roamed the earth in spectral bodies in Rudra’s company.^[32] The night rovers or niśācaras according to the medical texts feed on flesh and blood and cause diseases. The Mahābhārata knows the Rudras to be deformed creatures, abhorrent and ferocious in appearance, abhorrent and obnoxious in behaviour. As Bhattacharji points out, one gets the impression that they do not belong to the world of the living or to the plane of normality.^[33] Hence, it can be concluded that this somber and dread god is surrounded by spectres, spirits who have “passed on”; a belief that lingers even now, for Śiva is Bhūtanātha, and the word bhūta which originally meant “being” or “creature” has come to mean ghost, for Śiva is also Pramatheśa-lord of the Pramathas, and these are undoubtedly spirits. These ghoulish creatures roam at his bidding with whom he lives in the cremation-ground.^[34]

What is also significant is the gruesome nature of oblations consisting of liver, internal organs of the body, entrails and so on is ordained the lunar deities unlike the pleasant things offered to the other deities. Śiva and his associate gods are almost invariably offered meat, and his fondness for human flesh in epic and Paurāṇic literature isolates him from the other deities. The Vāyu Purāṇa mentions his fondnesses for raw and cooked flesh (pakvāmamāṃsalubdha) and for foetus flesh like a jackal. Red is the colour of Rudra, and red is the colour of fire and blood.^[35]

The places that are prescribed in the Gṛhyasūtras for offerings to Rudra are similar to places where offerings are made to the grahas in the Saṃhitās. These include spots infested with snakes, at a mound of manure, in a river and at crossroads.^[36]

The other important aspect of Rudra-Śiva for our discussion is his relation with venom. The Ṛgveda knows that Rudra drank from a poisoned chalice with Keśin, and the Atharvaveda mentions Keśins and Keśinīs as his companions.^[37] He also agreed to consume the poison that rose from the churning of the ocean at the request of the other deities. The poison which stuck to his throat made him Nīlakaṇṭha or blue-necked. It is significant that unlike the other Aryan gods Śiva should be connected with poison.^[38] Besides he bears venomous serpents on his body. His earrings, girdle and sacred thread are made of snakes.^[39] An infallible anti-venom formulation, Mahā-ganda-hastī is credited to Lord Tryambaka.^[40]

The Vājsaney Saṃhitā connects Rudra with snakes and monsters and with the mole (ākhu). The mole is also offered to Nirṛti thus testifying to the fact that Nirṛti is one of Rudra’s associate gods, discharging similar or supplementary functions.^[41] His association with snakes is known is known Gṛhyasūtras and several other texts as well as in iconography,^[42] and they are clearly conceived as his servants.^[43] In Bengal, Manasā the snake goddess is Śiva’s daughter, perhaps because she took over the snake cult from her father.^[44]

We may refer to some iconographic representations of Śiva which have bearing on our subject. He is depicted on the coins of Wema Kadpheses, almost holding a water-vessel with his left hand which is perhaps a reminiscence of his Vedic description “Jalāṣabheṣaja: divine water efficacious for diseases.^[45] We may also mention that Viśvāmitra (mentioned as Suśuta’s father in the Saṃhitā) is depicted on Audumbara coins with the triśula, thereby establishing his Śaivite leanings.^[46]

From the above discussion it is clear that Rudra-Śiva is associated with various disease causing agents: poisons, snakes and malevolent elements. On the other hand, he controls the remedial agents: plants, animals, water. In the Vedic corpus itself, Rudra is praised as the god of the universe, the god who enjoys supreme position and paramount importance; he is everything, good and evil, more evil perhaps than good-but he symbolizes all creation, animate, and inanimate, human and subhuman, moral and immoral.^[47] There is a deliberate tendency to see in him a god with comprehensive control over all nature.^[48] Association with disease causing agents implies Śiva gives deliverance from them as well. In the Mahābhārata (XIII.17) itself, Brahmā describes Mahādeva as Dhanvantari, the prince of physicians.^[49] These attributes undoubtedly contributed to his growing popularity as the god of healing and he came to be worshipped as Vaidyanātha.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 9.91.

[2]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 3.4.

[3]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 3.14.

[4]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Uttaratantra 39.9.

[5]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 3.310; Suśruta Saṃhitā Uttaratantra 39.270.

[6]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 9.91.

[7]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Uttaratantra 61.25.

[8]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 9.95.

[9]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Siddhisthāna 12.19(1)-19(3).

[10]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Siddhisthāna 12.38.

[11]:

A.B. Keith, The Religion and the Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanishads, Vol. 1, Cambridge (Mass.), 1925, p.143.

[12]:

Ṛgveda 7.46.3; 2.33.14; Atharvaveda 6.90.1.

[13]:

Ṛgveda 1.114.1.

[14]:

Ṛgveda 1.43.6.

[15]:

Atharvaveda XI.2.22 says “Homage to him, whose weapon Cough or Fever, assails one like the neighing of a stallion.”

[16]:

Atharvaveda XI.2.26; VI.90.

[17]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.109.

[18]:

Ṛgveda 7.46.3.

[19]:

Ṛgveda 2.33.4.

[20]:

Ṛgveda II.35.7; Atharvaveda I.27.6, VI.44.6; S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.127.

[21]:

A.B. Keith, The Religion and the Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanishads, Vol. 1, p. 143.

[22]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.117.

[23]:

Atharvaveda VI.90.1; VI.57.1;VI.59.3; S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.127.

[24]:

Ṛgveda VI.93.1; VI.141.1; I.43.2; V.42.11; VII.46.2

[25]:

A.B. Keith, The Religion and the Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanishads, Vol. 1, p. 143.

[26]:

Atharvaveda II.34; XI.2.2

[27]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.128.

[28]:

Atharvaveda VII.87.

[29]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, pp. 154- 157.

[30]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.128-129.

[31]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.135.

[32]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.141.

[33]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.133.

[34]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.138.

[35]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, pp.135-140.

[36]:

A.B. Keith, The Religion and the Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanishads, Vol. 1, p. 145.

[37]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.139-140.

[38]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.151-151.

[39]:

S. Kramrisch, The Presence of Śiva, Varanasi/Delhi, 1988, p. 259.

[40]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 23.81.

[41]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.141.

[42]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.149.

[43]:

A.B. Keith, The Religion and the Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanishads, Vol. 1, p.145.

[44]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p. 152.

[45]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, pp.127-128.

[46]:

A. Jha, Bharatiya Sikke: Ek Aitihāsika Paricaya (in Hindi), Nasik, 2003, p. 36

[47]:

S. Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony, p.136.

[48]:

A.B. Keith, The Religion and the Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanishads, Vol. 1, p. 145.

[49]:

K.M. Ganguli, The Mahābhārata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa: Translated into English Prose, Calcutta, 1883-1896. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm (accessed on 15.1.2013)