Vagbhata: the legendary and visionary of ayurveda

Summary of article contents:

Ayurveda is an eternal system of medicine serving humanity since long back. Brahma composed the Brahma-Samhita consisting of one thousand chapters and one lakh verses before creation of the living beings. It shows the utility of this science of life and that’s why Brahma transmitted this knowledge to Daksha-Prajapati, Daksha-Prajapati to Ashwins ( Nasatya and Dasra) and Ashwins to Indra. According to Vriddha-Vagbhata , different seers and sages in the leadership of Punarvasu Atreya approached Indra to learn Ayurveda. These seers and sages brought this knowledge to the earth for the welfare of suffering humanity. Punarvasu Atreya, Divodasa Dhanvnatari and many other. seers taught Ayurveda to their disciples and consequently Agnivesha-Tantra (later became popular as Charaka-Samhita ), Sushruta Samhita, Bhela-Samhita, Harita-Samhita and many other Samhitas. were composed. It was the initiation of writing the Samhita (classical texts) of the Ayurveda on the earth. These Samhitas became very much popular in due course of time. The transmission of the knowledge of Ayurveda did not stop here and remains continue. In this series, a learned scholar and visionary of Ayurveda, Vagbhata appears who wrote the text comprising of Ashtanga Ayurveda . Vagbhata dedicated himself to design such a text which includes Ashtanga-Ayurveda according to the need of the age and he succeeded. Due to excellence and gravity of the text, his classic ( Ashtanga-Samgraha / Ashtanga-Hridaya ) has been considered among the Brihattray i (greatertrio) of Ayurveda. Some of the scholars consider Ashtanga-Samgraha of Vriddha-Vagbhata as a third classic among the Brihattrayi while many others accepted Ashtanga-Hridaya of Vagbhata as a third classic among Brihattrayi . Two other classics of Brihattrayi are Charaka-Samhita and Sushruta-Samhita . Although Vagbhata faced struggle to get popularity of his text because in those days the texts written by seers and sages only were accepted and studied. Vagbhata compiled and rearranged the subject matter meticulously discussed in already available Samhitas namely Charaka-Samhita, Sushruta-Samhita and many others and in due course of time became popular. We see the chronological development of the concepts and practices in the texts of Vagbhata . Several Vagbhatas are mentioned in the histories who have written text on different streams of learning. There are three significant works on Ayurveda by Vagbhata viz. Ashtanga-Samgraha by Vriddha-Vagbhata , Ashtanga-Hridaya by Vagbhata and Rasaratnasamuchchaya by Rasa-Vagbhata . This research paper deals with various aspects related to Vagbhata , his personality and contributions. Keywords: Ayurveda, Vagbhata, Ashtanga-Samgraha, Ashtanga-Hridaya, Samhita