AyurvedGuru

Bhardawaja

The Prime Source Of All Knowledge To The Indo-Aryans Was The Veda And Both Legend And History Must Ultimately Be Traced To Vedic Origins. The ‘science Of Life‘ And The Gods And Sages That Have Propagated And Enriched It, Find Mention In That Eternal Body Of Knowledge, The Vedas. The Rgveda And The Arthaveda Are Variously Claimed As The Source, Or The Original Tree Of Which Ayurveda Is A Branch. Some Thus Call It An Upa-Veda Of The Artharva-Veda By Most And Of The Ragu Veda.

Though The Vedas Are The Eternal Source Of Knowledge, They Are Given Out At The Beginning Of Each Cycle Of Creation By The Creator Brahma And Are Promulgated By The Foremost Of His Creatures For The Guidance Of The World. Thus, The Brahma, According To The Mundak Panisad Which Belong To The Arthvaveda, Narrates The Descents Of Brahma Vidya From Brahma. Brahma Taught To His Eldest Son Artharva. Artharva Gave It To Angir And He To Satyavaha, A Descendent Of Bhardawaja. Though Him It Came Down Through Generation To The World. What Applies To The Brahma Vidya Applies To The Whole Of The Arthrva Veda. This Arthrva Veda Is Also Called The Brahma Veda, The Vedic Per Excellence. At The Time Of The Sacrifice, The Rgveda Is Represented And Sung By The Hota, The Yajurveda By The Adharyu, The Sama-Veda By The Udgata And The Atharva-Veda By Brahma I.E. The One That Represent Creator. Thus The Place Of Honor Is Accorded To This Veda. The Gopatha, Brahman A Says While All The Three Vedas From One Wing Of The Bird Of Sacrifice The Arthra Veda, By Itself, Forms Of Other Wings.

We Thus See That This Arthrva Veda Was Held In High Esteem And Its Promulgators Were Naturally Regarded As The Leaders Of Thought And Practical Wisdom.

This Arthrva Veda Is Both Religious And Secular In Its Range Of Subjects And Scope Of Practice. Not Only Was It Sung And Represented At The Performance Of The Sacrifice Of Which Was The Nucleus Of Vedic Religion And Worship, But Its Coteries Were The Ones Considered Duly Qualified To Be The Priests And Advisers To King And Entitled To Perform And Of Coronation Of Kings.

Thus We See That The Arthrva Veda Containing As It Does Both Spiritual And Worldly Lore, Was Patronized Both By Sages And Kings. Its Promulgators Were Naturally The Leaders Of Society And The Originators Of The Great Sciences And Arts That The Arthrva Veda Contained. This Artharvangirasa Lineage Is The One From Which Has Sprung The Great Sage In Question, Bhardawaja And No Wonder That In The Arthra Veda His Name And Stature Stand Out Conspicuously And According To The Caraka Samhita, He Is The Bringer Of The Medical Science From The King Of The Gods And The First Teacher Of Ayurveda On Earth, Of Whom Atreya And Others Are The Great Discipline.

Agni, Vayu And Surya Are The Recipients Of The Rk, Yajus And Saman Respectively And Similarly Atharva Is The Recipient Of The Atharv-Veda. Bhardawaja Belonging To His Line Is Naturally Accorded The Great Place As The Earthly Promulgator Of Its Important Branches Of Medicine And Archery.

Now, As Regards The Evidence We Have From The Three Foremost Samhitas Of Ayurveda About Its Origin And Earthly Descent, There Is Unanimity Upto A Certain Extent I.E. With Reference To The Celestial Part Of Its Devolution.

“daksa Prajapati, The Progenitor, First Obtain The Science Of Life In Its Entirely As Promulgated By Brahma, The Great One I.E From The Aswin Twins The God Indra Acquired. Therefore The Bhardawaja Bidden By The Sages Approached Indra (Sakra).”
Thus According To Them All, Brahma Taught The Science Of Daksa, The Progenitor, And He Imparted It To The Twin Gods, Known As The Aswins. From Them Indra, The Lord Of The Immortals, Learnt It. It Is From Indra That Mortal Protagonists Acquired It, And According To The Caraka Samhita, The First Mortal That Received The Science Was Bhardwaja, Who Repaired To The Court Of Indra Delegated By The Congress Of Rsis To Appeal To The King Of The Gods To Impart The Science For The Redemption Of Suffering Mankind Below. Graciously Enough, Indra Taught The Whole Of The Science To Bhardawaja, From Who Atreya And Other Great Sages Learnt It And Passed On Their Disciples. The Prime Object Of The Science Of Life Is To Lengthen The Span Of Earthly Existence And Bhardawaja, The First Mortal Knower Of The Science, Is Credited To Have Achieved This End.

“Bhardawaja Thereby Acquired Unmeasured Life Endowed With Happiness“; For He Is Known To Have Lived Through Three Lives I.E. Three Generations Of Contemporary Humanity. This,As We Have Already Said, Is The Version Of The Caraka Samhita Of The Beginning Of The Ayurveda On Earth. But According To The Susruta And Kasyapa Samhitas Which Are More Or Less Contemporaneous With Caraka Samhita Or Agnivesha Tantra As It Is Also Called, The Original Teachers Of These Treatise Namely Dhanvantri And Kasyapa Claim To Have Received The Science Direct From Indra, On A Par With Bhardawaja.

In This Connection It Is Necessary To Refer To Another Part Of The Caraka Samhita Where A Different Account Of A Descent Of Ayurveda, Particularly Of Rasayana, Is Given. In The Section On Rasayana, The Following Narrative Occurs.

Which Means That Bhrgu And Other Sages Approached Indra In The Himalayan Region, Desiring To Find The Remedy For The Ills Born Of Dwelling It Towns And Villages. They Received The Desired Knowledge From Indra. There Is No Mention Of Bhardwaja In This Context As Receiving Ayurveda From Indra; But There Is The Name Of Atri Among The Galaxy Of Sages. The Learned Commentators Cakrapani Comes To The Readers Rescue And Explains That This Refers To A Later Occasion Then The One Described In The Opening Chapter Of The Books And That In The Meanwhile The Science Of Healing Had Fallen Into Neglect And The Sages Mentioned Above Approach Indra Again For Instructions. The Explanations Sounds Quite Plausible Considering The Fact That No To Obviously Conflicting Versions Could Have Been Embodied In The Same Text By Its Authors Or Compilers And Subsequent Redactors; And A Supposition Like The One Suggested By The Learned Commentator Seems Quite Justifiable And To Have Been Intended By The Authors. The Latter Reference Is Evidently Limited Only To The Science Of Rasayana.

As Regards The Evidence Of One Together Two Samhitas Reffered To, We Shall First Examine The Sursuta Samhita. There Is No Mention Of Bhardawaja Having Received The Science From Indra Or Having Imparted It To Dhanvantri, The King Of Kashi. Dhanvantri Claims To Have Received It From Indra Directly, As May Be Seen From The Table Given Before. Yet In Contradiction To What We See In The Sursuta Samhita Itself, We Find From The Taittiriya Brahman And The Mahabharata That Bhardwaja Was The Priest (Purohita) Of These Generations Of The King Of Kasi I.E. Dhanvantari, Sudasa, And Pratardana. He Is Thus Said To Have Lived Through Three Lives. Divodasa Must Have Owed His Knowledge To His Preceptor And Priest Bhardwaja. The Harivamsa Describes Bhardwaja As The Teacher Of The Medical Science Of Dhanvantari.

Evidently, As Divodasa Was Regarded As The Earthly Incarnation Of God Dhanvantri, The Original God Of Medicine, He Claims To Have Received The Science Directly From Indra, The King Of The Gods. Thus Alone Can We Explain The Absence Of Any Mention, In The Sursuta Samhita, Of Bhardwaja As The Preceptor Of Dhanvantari Or Divodas. The Compiler Of Each Treatise Too. In The Kashyapa Samhita, Kashyapa And Not Bhardwaja Is The Recipient Of The Science From Indra.

Again In The Harita Samhita- Harita Is A Disciple Of Atreya Along With Agnivesha, Bhela And Others- We Have A Confirmation Of The Story Of Bhardwaja Is As The Teacher Of Atreya And Other Sages.

Curiously Enough, Vagbhata, Who Draws From All The Samhitas Extant At His Time, Portrays Punarvasu Atreya Atreya As Approaching Indra As Leader Of Other Sages Among Whom Bhardwaja Is Also One, And As Learning The Science Of Life From Him. He Is Not Indebted To Bhardwaja For His Acquisition Of The Science.

Perhaps It Is These And Such Other Conflicting Narratives That Have Made Some Scholars Believe Atreya To Be Identical With Bhardwaja. But The Learned Cakrapani Is Emphatic On The Different Individualities Of These Two Sages And Is Definitely Of The Opinion That Bhardwaja Is The Teacher Of Atreya.

A Much Later Writer On Medicine, Bhavamisra, Of The Sixteenth Century, Has Three Differing Versions Of The Story Of The Ayurveda. Evidently He Contents Himself By Stating The Actual Versions Then Current In Books And Among The Scholars Of The Science. He Firstly Narrates The Story As Told By Vagbhata Wherein Atreya, As The Leader Of A Group Of Sages, Receives His Instruction From Indra.

In The Second Story, He Depicts Atreya As Approaching Indra, By Himself, Our Of Compassion For Suffering Humanity; And Having Learnt The Science From Indra, Atreya Writes A Treatise On Ayurveda And Instructs His Disciples Agnivesa, Bhela And Other In It.

According To The Third Story, Once It Happened That Many Sages Met Together On The Slopes Of Himalayas. The First To Arrive Was The Best Among Sages, Bhardwaja. Then All The Sages That Congregated, Unanimously Chose And Besought Bhardwaja To Repair To Indra And Bring Down The Ayurveda.

He Did So And The Other Sages Studied The Treatise Written By Him And Acquired Long Life And Health. This Story Is More In Accordance With One Given In The Caraka Samhita Except For The Features Which Makes Bhardwaja Offer Himself Voluntarily To Be Their Deputy Before India In The Latter Work. That The Other Sages Learnt The Science From Him Is Common To Both The Versions. His Teaching Was Imparted Systematically, Laying Out The Foundation Of Logical Concepts Of Samanya, Visesa And Samavaya , From Which The Theory Of Drug And Action As Evolved Leading  To The General Principles Of The Science Of The Medicine. Both In Bhavaprakasa And Caraka, These Logical Concepts Are Specifically Mentioned As The Basic Knowledge The Bhardwaja Taught The Other Sages For Learning The Science Of Medicine. It Is Therefore Natural To Sunrise That Bhardwaja Should Have Been Famous As A Teacher Of Logic. We Find One Udyota-Kara The Author Of Nyayavarttika Referring To Bharadwaja As The Author Of Nyaya.

From The Foregoing It Must Be Evident That Despite Conflicting Narratives, Ayurveda Owes Its Inception To Bhardwaja. The Strongest Point In Favor Of Such A View In His Line Of Descent From Atharva-Veda Accords Leadership In The Science Of Bhardwaja, A Luminous Sage Of The Atharvavedic Line Of Descent.

Besides, Bhardwaja Is A Named Held In Great Veneration Even In The Rgveda. He Is The Composer Of The Brhat Which Is The Best Of The Sama Melodies. In A Hymn In The Rgveda (X. 181) It Is Sung That While Vasistha Composed The Rathantara Melody It Was Bharadwaja Who Was The Author Of Brhat, These Being The Twins Luminous Among The First To Discover ‘the Highway Leading To The Gods’. The Hymn Concludes Saying, Rather Mysteriously, That It Was ‘These Sages (Among Whom Bhardwaja Is One) That Brought Down The Gharma’ The Heat, From The Sun.

In The Mahabharata, Bhardwaja Is Said To Be A Sage Settled Near Haradwar On The Banks Of The Ganges, While In The Ramayana He Has Hermitage At Prayag Where He Receives Rama And Sita.

According To Both The Harivansh And Bhagwat, Bhardwaja Became The Adopted Son Of Paurva, Son Of Bharata. In The Story It Is Said That As The King Was Not Satisfied With The Qualities Of Children His Wife Bore Him, He Was Very Much Grieved And The Maruts Commended To Him This Son Of The Brahspatias Most Worthy Of Being Adopted By Him For A Successor.

The Story Of His Birth In This Connection Is Worth Narrating. According To The Vishnu Purana And The Mahabharata, He Is The Son Of Mamta By Brahspati. When Utathya’s Wife Mamta Was Big With Child, Brahspati The Husband’s Younger Brother Cohabited With Mamta. The Fetus Who Later Was The Great Sage. Dirghatamas Objected The Uncle’s Attempt At Further Impregnation And Kicked Out The New Fetus With His Feet. In Consequence, Brahspati Caused The Original Fetus To Become Blind As Dirghatamas Became Since, As His Name Indicates. Through Thrown Out, Brahspati Offspring Grew Into The Child That Was Bhardwaja Later. “rear This Child Of Double Parentage” With These Words Brahspati Offered The Child To The Mother.

Thus The Strange Tale Of An Instance Of Superfetation Hangs About This Great Personage Of Ancient Times, One Of The Greatest Leaders Of Men At The Very Dawn Of Aryan History In India. Prometheus-Like In Stature And Benevolence, Wise As Behooves The Son Of Brahspati, The Teachers Of The Gods, He Stored The Earth Like A Prophet, Bringing The Fire From The Sun, The Healing Wisdom From The King Of The Immortals And Opened Up The Pathway Leading To Heaven, Which May Mean The ‘Brahma-Vidya’ Or The Institution Of Sacrifice That Opens Up The Path Leading To The Gods. Prophet Sage And Prince, This Dynamic Leader Was The Contemporary Of Three Generations Of Humanity, Counselor And Teacher To The Kings Of Kashi, Revered Leader And Compeer The Greatest Of The Sages, He Might Also Be One Of The Seven Original Sages That Exist From The Beginning Of Each Cycle Of Manvantara. Cakrapani The Commentators If Of The View That He Is Only A Descendent On The Original Sage Of The Name.

With The Great Personage, Half Legendary And Half Historical, Half Divine And Half Human, Striding The Snowy Height Of The Himalayas In The Early Dawn Of History, Footing The Path To The Home Of The King Of The Immortals, ‘looking Larger Then Human On These Frozen Hills, The History Of Ayurveda Begins. He Remain Forever The Bringer Of The Healing Light, The Father Of The Science Of The Medicine On Earth.

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