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Instinct Is The Inner Compulsion That The Animal Organism Feels In The Choice Of What Is Good And Beneficial For Its Survival And Protection. In The Early Man, This Grew Into The Higher Faculty Of The Mind Called Intuition. The Pro-Ponders Of Ayurveda Thus Knew That The Protective Power And Device Was Ingrained In Life Itself And Acquired Varied Expression In The Plant, Animal And Man According To The Exigencies That Each Of These Stages Of Animation Gave Rise To. The Plant Developed Its Thorns And A Thick Coat Of Bark To Prevent Its Easy Vulnerability. Animals And Birds Knew By Instinct What Particular Action Or Thing Helped To Get Over On Affliction. Equally Naturally Did The Early Man See With His Mental Eye The Measures And Things That Relieved Him Of Ailments. In Caraka, We Find It Expounded That There Never Was A Time When Ayurveda Did Not Exist, Even As It Was The Case With Life. The Life Stream Carried In Its Current Its Own Supporting And Protecting Wisdom That Became Manifest At The Beginning Of Each Cycle Of Time To The Seers. It Is Only In That Sense That Ayurveda Can Be Said To Have A Beginning. Otherwise, It Is As Beginning Less As Life Itself And Runs Parallel To It Through All Time (Caraka, Sutra. 30,27). The Veda Thus Naturally Contains Reference To Such Instinctive And Intuitive Origin Of Medicine.
Osler, The Great Writer On Modern………..

Medicine Refers To (1) Natural Phlebotomy Which The Hippopotamus Knows For Its Thrusts Itself Against A Sharp Pointed Reed In The River Bank When It Feels, It Needs Phlebotomy, (2) The Use Of Emetics By The Dog, (3) The Use Of Enemata By The Ibis. Before Refers To The Use Of Valerian By Cats, Antidote Herbs For Snake- Poison By The Mongoose, Of Plant Ago Major By The Toad, Of Salt By The Cow, Buffalo, Horse And Camel. Similarly Licking Of The Wounds By The Animals, Stopping The Bleeding By Monkeys And Other Instinctive Performances Of Remedial Gestures And Applications By Animals And Birds Have Been Noticed And Described By Writers On The History Of Medicine. The Artha Veda Mentions The Animals And Birds From Whom The Use Of Healing Herbs And Drugs Could Be Learnt.

“the Boar Knows The Plant; The Mongoose Knows The Remedial (Herb) What Ones The Serpents, The Gandharvas Know, Those I Call To Aid For Him. 23

What (Herbs) Of The Angirases The Eagles Know, What Heavenly Ones The Birds, The Swans Know, And What All The Winged Ones, What Herbs The Wild Beasts Know- Those I Call To Aid For Him. 24

Of How Many Herbs The Inviolable Kine Partake, Of How Many The Goats And Sheep, Let So Many Herbs, Being Brought, Extend Protection To Thee. 25”

The Natural Desires And Inclinations Of The Ailing Man Are Even Now Indications Of His Needs Not Be Disregarded By The Attending Physician. Susruta Is Emphatic On The Value Of Such Inclination Known As ‘parkanksa’.

Vedic Medicine And Post Vedic Medicine Too Have Been Guided In A Great Measures By What Is Known Now As The Doctrine Of Signature. The Color, Texture Or Shapes Of Things That Were Similar To The Affected Parts Or Elements Of The Body Were Indications To Them Of Their Usefulness As Remedies And As Replenishing Agents. Thus Substances That Could Tinge The Fluids Bright Red Were Helpful In Promoting The Blood Or In Checking Hemorrhages. Milk And Other Substances Of Its Color And Consistency Were Regarded Primitive Of The Body Elements Of Similar Texture And Color Like Semen, And Ojas Or The Protoplasmic Cell Fluid. Osler Mentions The Use Of Plant Eye Bright For Centuries In Disease Of The Eye Because The Black Speck In The Flower Suggested The Pupil Of The Eye. Caraka Mentions Lac As Beneficial In Hemoptysis. The Artha-Veda Mentions Turmeric And Yellow Birds Into Which Jaundice Is Charmed To Enter, Leaving The Human Patient.

It Is From Such Beginnings, That Man Guided By The Instincts Of The Lower Animals And The Intuition Of The Best Among His Own Species, Has Evolved The Present Complex System Of The Healing Science, Harnessing Fancy, Imagination And Reason In The Service Of Health And Life.

With The Awakening Of His Mind To The Super Sensual Reality Behind Life, He Felt The Need To Propitiate By Conduct And Ceremony, The Mysterious Powers Behind Life In The Form Of Gods, Spirit, And Angels. Thus, The Artha Veda Is Record Of Psycho-Somatic Technique Of Healing By A Combined Procedures Of Charms, Prayers, Incantations Amulets And Drugs. The Arthaveda Is A Compendium Of Medicine In Its Various Stage Of Evolution And Contains The Most Primitive As Well As Highly Advanced Stage Of Therapy. A Hymn Recounts The Four Kinds Of Remedies Or Therapies That Protect Life. The Therapies Of Holy Chants, Of The Juices Of Plant And Animal Parts Of Devotion To Gods Or Nature-Therapy And Of Human Contrivance By Means Of Drugs- They Are The Therapies That Protect Life.

“O Life! When You Are Propitious, The Drugs Of The Arthavanas (Charms), The Drugs Of The Angirases (Juices Of Plant And Animal Parts), The Divine Drugs (Prayers To Sun, Water And Other Natural Elements) And The Drugs Of Human Artifice All Bear Fruitions.”

Thus Even So Long Back As The Vedic Times, They Knew Medicine In Its Various Aspects Of Psycho-Therapy, Oregano Therapy, Naturo Therapy And Drug Therapy.

Snake-Poison And Other Kinds Of Poisons Bites By The Fangs Of Cruel Animals Were Common In Those Times As The Charms And Drugs Against Their Conditions Are Most Common In The Artha Veda. Toxicology As A Special Branch Had Already Come Into Being With The Artharvans As A Class Of Persons Learned In Charms And Incantations Against Poison, Sorcery And Toxic Conditions.
The Combined Therapy Of Drug And Incantation Was Applied To Somatic Ailments As Well; The Fever, The King Of Them All, Was Known As Takman, Which Yielded To Both Drug And Charm Each Singly Or Both Combined.

As Regards, The Surgical And Therapeutics Skill, The Physicians Of Gods, The Aswins Twins, Were Wonder Workers. They Could Replace The Head Of A Man With That Of A Horse. They Healed The Withered Hand Of Indra After He Wielded Thunder Against His Foes.

“The Aswins Who Are The Physicians Of The Gods Are Celebrated As The Re-Suscitators Of Sacrifice. It Is These Two, Again, That Successfully Treated Pusan When His Teeth Had Become Loosened, Bhaga When He Had Lost His Eye-Sight And Indra When His Arm Had Become Stiffened. These Two, Moreover, Cured Soma, The Moon God, Of Consumption And Restored Him To His Happiness When He Had Fallen From His State Of Good Health. When Cyavana, The Son Of Bhrgu, Had Become Decrepit With Loss Of Voice And Body Lustre, As The Result Of Old Age, But Hankered Still For Sense-Pleasures, It Is The Aswin Pair That Made Him Young Once Again. On Account Of These And Many Other Miracles Of Healing, These Two, The Greatest Of Physicians, Came To Be Regarded With Honor By Such Great Personages As Indra And Others”.

With Difference To The Mode Of Sacrificial Worship, The Anatomy Of The Higher Animals Like The Cow, Sheep And Horse Were Well Known To The Ancient Aryans. Though Not Often, Even Human Sacrifice Was The Practiced Which Must Have Yielded A Reasonably Vivid Picture Of Human Anatomy. Wars With The Rival Tribes And Clansman On The North West Of India And With The Dark Chiftains Of The Natives ‘dasyu’ Must Have Necessitated To The Acquisition Of A Degree Of Surgical Skill.

A Through Investigation Of The Material In The Artha Veda From The Medical Historian’s Point Of View Remains Yet To Be Accomplished. There Are 114 Hymns In It Devoted To Medical Topics. Fever, Consumption, Various Wounds Such As Apaci, Vidradhi Etc., Leprosy, Dropsy, Heart Disease, Headache, Worms, Eye And Ear Diseases, Poison, Rheumatism, Madness And Epilepsy Are Some Of The Outstanding Subject Mentioned In The Artha Veda.

Even A Cursory Perusal Of It Is Enough To Conclude That A Considerable Knowledge Of Psycho-Somatic Medicine And A Practical Knowledge Of Human Anatomy And Surgical Skill, Obtained Already Among The Vedic Aryans. It Is Forms Such Beginnings And On Such Foundations That The Later Sages, Researchers In The Vital Science Of Ayurveda, Eight Branched And Three Propped, Evolved A Medical System Complete With Its Frame Work Of General Principles Of The Science Of The Human Organism And Of The Five Elemental Composition Of Drug And The Human Cell Controlled By The Triad Of Forces Called “Tridhatu”.

Of This, We Shall Have To Speak Later In The Volume. Suffice It To Know Now That From This Period Of Vedic Medicine,, We Enter Upon The Variegated Scene Of The Samhita Period Of The Period Of Systematic And Scientific Compilation. The Story Of Ayurveda As Scientific Medicine Begins After The Quaint Age Of Vedas, When The Mortals And Immortals Mingled And Interchanged Their Gifts, When Gods Spirit And Demons Were Everyday Realities And When The Yaksas Dwelt In Running Brooks And Waving Tree Tops And Gandharvas Haunted The Valleys And Dwells Of The Mountains. In Such Circumstances Of Living Naturally Enough, The Priest And The Physician Were One, And Religion And Sacred Ritual Were Not Far Distinguishable From The Healing Art. And At The End Of The Its Vedic Age Must We Place The Great Congress Of Sages Described In The Opening Line Of The Caraka Samhita, Who Gathered Together To Discover The Way Of Healing And Long Life, Faced With The Undeniable Reality Of Deadly Disease And Pestilence That Snatched Away The Flower Of Humanity And Made The Impossible Higher Progress And Evolution Of Life Through Meditation And Thought. With That Conference In The Northern Himalayas, Drawns The Age Of Scientific Medicine In India. The History Of That Medicine, The Story Of Its Beginning And Enfoldment, We Shall Trace In Board Out Line In The Following Pages, With The Limited Resources At Our Disposal.

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