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The Great Heritage Of The Healing Art Left To Us By Krsna Atreya Would Have Been Lost To Us But For The Herculean Task Of His Chief Pupil Agnivesha Who Made A Detailed Record Of The Exposition Which Flowed From The Benevolent Lips Of His Preceptor Atreya. It Was Agnivesha Who Codified The Knowledge And Arrange It In The Form Of A Treatise Which Forms The Basis Of What Is Now The Caraka Samhita. Krsna Atreya Expounded The Science Of Kaya Chikitsa To His Six Pupils Among Whom Agnivesha Was One Of The Outstanding Intelligence. His Intellect Was Superior To His Co Students And His Treatise Was Applauded By The Sages As The Most Authoritative

“Thereafter Punarvasu, The Most Benevolent, Moved By Compassion By All Creatures, Bestowed The Science Of Life On His Six Disciples. Agnivesha, Bhela, Jatukarna, Parsara, Harita And Ksarapani Receive The Teaching Of The That Sage.

All This Has Been Declared To The Foremost Disciple By Punarvasu, The Knower Of Truth, Who Was Free From The Faults Of Passion And Ignorance, In The Discourse On The Treatment Of Pectoral Lesions And Cachexia.

Addressing Himself To The Six Choicest Of His Disciples Headed By Agnivesha, Who Were Dedicated To Study And Meditation, The Master, Atreya, Declared As Follows, With A View To Stimulate Inquiry.

It Was The Excellence Of His Own Understanding And Not Any Difference In Instruction By The Sage, Whereby Agnivesha Became The Foremost Compiler Of The Science.

Not Only Was He The Most Brilliant Among The Disciples But His Compilation Received The Approval Of The Committee Of Experts Which Declared It To Be The Best Of The All And Ever Since It Became The Authoritative Text Book On The Science.”

This Brilliant Author Of Perhaps The Oldest Written Medical Work Was Known As Hutasa Or Hutasavesa And Vahnivesa. Hutasa And Vahni Are But The Synonymous Of Agni And The Later Authors Substituted The Synonymous For The Purpose Of Variation. In Chapter 44 On Fractures We Find

Agnivesha Is Referred To His Synonyms In Caraka Samhita

In Siddhi Sthana 12 Th Chapter Verse 53 Agnivesha Is Referred To As Vahinvesa.

The Commentator Cakrapani While Beginning The Benedictory Verse Refers To Agnivesha By His Synonym.

The Agnivesha-Tantra Originally Consisted Of 12000 Verse.

Unfortunately Agnivesha Tantra In The Original Form Is Not Available At Present. The Logically Leads Us To The Question, As To The Period Till Which The Book Was Available.

Indukara, The Commentator Of Asthana Sangraha Writes This Statement Has Led Many To Believe That Caraka’s Life Came To An End Before He Could Complete The Redaction Of Agnivehsa-Tantra. But This Theory Is Untenable, Because Through Out The The Caraka Samhita We Find At The End Of Each Chapter This Means That Caraka Redacted The Whole Agnivesha In His Time.

The Following Statement Of Drdhabala Has Led Some People To Think That Agnivesha Was Not Available In His Time.

“He Added Seventeen Chapters In The Section On Therapeutics As Also The Two Sections Pharmaceutics And Success In Treatment In Enturety, By Culling His Data From Various Treatise On The Science”.

The Seventeen Chapters And The Sections On Pharmaceutics And Success In Treatment In The Treatise Composed By Agnivesha And Revised By Caraka Have Not Been Found.”

But Such An Assumption Can Be Easily Set Aside. The Argument Put Farward Is That He Mentions Having Taken From Many Other Books And Agnivesha Tantra Is Not Specifically Mentioned. But We Must Not Forget That Drdhabala Is A Redactor. As We Have Seen, Redactions Is The Progressive Revision Of The General Text. Additions Or Omissions Can Be Made According To The Progress In The Science Made During That Period. Naturally The Author Has To Consult All New Books For Such Redaction. He Has To Move With The Times And Be In Constant Touch With The Changing. He Was Not A Mere Commentator Who Has Just To Make The Text Lucid. He Was A Redactor And As Such He Consulted All Available Treatise In Order To Revise And Make The Text Up To Date. The Basic Text, Which Was To Be Redacted, Need Not Be Mentioned Such As It Is To Be Taken For Granted As The Basic Text On Which The Super Structure Was Constructed.

Again, The Verse Quoted Means No More Than This That The Redacted Portion Of Caraka Is Not Available And It Is Only By A Stretch Of Unwarranted Assumption That We Can Construe It As Meaning That Agnivesha Tantra Was Not Available. A Slight Linguistic Ambiguity In The Verbs As However, Caused This Confusion. If The Reading Were: The Ambiguity Would Not Have Occurred.

In The Siddhi Sthana 4th Chapter, Drdhabala Describes The Meeting Of The Learned Sage Under The President Ship Of Atreya. Unless We Take This Is To Be A Mere Conventional Way Of Writing In Those Days, We Must Conclude That Agnivesha Tantra Was Available In Drdhabala’s Time.

There Is A Difference Of Opinion As Regards The Portion Of Section On Therapeutics, That Have Been Resorted By Drdhabala. This Creates A Problem As To Which 17 Chapters Were Restored By Drdhabala. A Critical Examination Of The Question By Thrashing Out All Available Internal And External Evidence Indicates That The Original Text Of Agnivesha Existed As The Basic Text For Drdhabala And That A Certain Portion Of The Redacted Text Of Caraka Was Not Available.

The Style And Language Of The Original Texts Of Agnivesha, Caraka And Drdhabala Can Be Distinguished On Minute Examination Of The Text. Now, We Find That There Is A Mixture Of The Styles And Diction In Nearly All The Chapters And Hence One Is Led To The Natural Conclusion That Agnivesha Tantra Did Exists In The Time Of Drdhabala.

The Index Of All The 120 Chapters Is Given In The 30th Chapter Of Sutra Sthana. Drdhabala Arrangement Is Quite In Accord With That. Though This Is Not A Strong Argument In Itself, As One Can Say That The Headings Of The Chapters Might Have Been Taken By Drdhabala From The Index In Sutra Sthana Or That The Whole Index In The 30th Chapter May Be Altogether A Later Insertion.

That The Agnivesha Tantra Did Exist Upto And Well After Vagbhata Is Amply Supported By Various Facts. The Following Quotations Should Disperse Any Suspicious That Agnivesha Tantra Was Lost In The Tome Of Vaghbhata.

Jejjata, A Pupil Of Vaghbhata Quotes From Agnivesha Tantra The Following Verses. These Verses Are Not Found In The Caraka Samhita And Hence He Must Have Quoted These From The Original Agnivesha Tantra Which Must Have Been Available In His Days.
Tisata, Son Of Vaghbhata In His Cikitsa Kalika Mentions Agnivesha As A Distinct Authority Showing That Agnivesha Tantra Existed In His Time.

Cakrapani, The Commentator Of Caraka Samhita, Who Flourished In The 11th Century A.D. Cites Pharmaceutical Preparations Which Are Not Found In The Caraka Samhita. This Leads Us To The Conclusion That The Original Agnivesha Tantra Was Available Even In The Time Of Cakrapani.

The Following Recipe Of Vasadya-Ghrtam Is Quoted By Sodhala From Agnivesha Tantra.

Sodhala Flourished In The 12th Century A.D And This Shows That Agnivesha Tantra Was Available Even Then.

Kanthadatta The Commentator On Vrnda’s Siddhayoga Who Flourished In The 13th Century A.D Says:

These Verses Are Also Not Found In The Caraka Samhita And Hence It Can Be Presumed That They Have Been Taken Directly From The Agnivesha Tantra Itself.

Sivadasa Sen Who Flourished In The 15th Century A.D. Says In His Tattva-Candrika.

As This Verse Is Not Found In The Caraka Samhita, The Only Possible Source Of It Must Be Agnivesha-Tantra Which Must Have Been Available In The Fiteenth Century. After That Period No More Citations From The Agnivesha-Tantra Are Available Except One Suggestive Reference By Gangadhar Sahstri In The 19th Century.

More References Will Be Unearthed By Scholars In The Course Of Research.

Besides This Premier Work On Ayurveda, Several Other Works Are Ascribed To Agnivesha Nidana, A Treatise On Diseases Of The Eye Is One Such Book.

Girindranath History Vol.Iii Pages 525-526

This Closing Sentence Definitely Ascribes The Work To Agnivesha. He Is Also Quoted By Vagbhata, Bhavamisra, Tisata And Rudrbhalla And Other Authors. There Are Two Or Three Commentaries Written On This Book.

A Third Work Nidana-Sthana (Pathology) Also Stands In The Name Of Agnivesha.

Dowson Speaks Of Agnivesha As A Sage And A Son Of Agni And An Early Writer On Medicine. We Learn That Bhardwaja And Agstya Were His Preceptors In Archery (Dhanurvidya) And That Bhardwaja Gave Him The Agneyastra Which Agnivesha Gave To His Pupil Drona. This Astra Was Called Brahmasirah.

Thus We Find That Agnivesha Was Equally Adept In The Science Of War As With That Of Medicine.

One Agnivesha, The Son Of Satyaka Is Mentioned In Majjhama Nikaya To Have Taken Part In The Philosphical Debate With Gautama Buddha.

There Is No Need To Go Into Elaborate Argument Over The Question Of Period In Which He Flourished. He Was The Pupil Of Atreya And Hence He Flourished During The Period Of Atreya I.E. During The Satapatha Period. We May Briefly Enumerate The Points That Support Our Placing Hin In The Satapatha Period, Apart From The Argument Of His Contemporaneity With Atreya.

1. He Must Have Flourished Before Panini As We Find References To Taxilla In Panini While Taxilla Is Conspicuous By Its Absence In Agnivesha Samhita. No Author Of The Versatility Of Agnivesha Could Afford To Neglect Mentioning Taxilla If It Were A Flourishing Centre Of Medical Learning In His Time.
2. In The Panini-Sutra, Jatukarna, Parasara And Agnivesha-All Names Of Physicians Occur Together And This Indicates That Agnivesha Lived Before Panini’s Period. We Know That Jatukarna And Parasara Were Co Students Of Agnivesha.
3. Hemadri-Laksana-Prakasa Quotes From Salihotra A List Of Ayurvedic Authors. In It Agnivesha, Harita, Kasarapani And Jatukarna Are Mentioned. We Know All These Were Co Students.
4. In Satapatha Brahman We Find This:- Here A Descendent Of Agnivesha Is Referred To.

Top Bhardwaja We Pay Our Homage As The First Mortal Who Undertook The Hazardous Task Of Travelling To The Adobe Of Indra And Bringing To The Mortal World Of The Science Of Ayurveda. We Regard Atreya With Reverence As The First Systematic Pro-Pounder Of The Science Of Healing. Caraka Is Illustrious As The Redactor Of The Original Tantra Of Agnivesha. But Amidst These We Must Not Forget The One Who Gave The Science Its Permanent Impress, By Reducing It The Systematic Form Which It Possesses Today And Which Was Heartily Applauded As The Best By His Contemporary Sages And Scholars. It Was Agnivesha, The Most Brilliant Pupil Of Atreya Who Took Down The Truths As They Flowed From The Sacred Lips Of His Master. Other Pupils Followed Suit, But It Was Agnivesha, Who Was Upheld As The Best. Thus It Was Agnivesha Who Likes Bhagiratha Brought The Heavenly Ganges Of The Healing Art Within The Reach Of Suffering Mankind. He Is The Golden Link Between The Preaching Is Of Atreya And The Expositions Of Later Medical Authors. It Is The Anchor Sheet And The Permanent Fountain Source Of Medical Science From Which All The Later Scholars Have Drawn Nourishment Abd Support.

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