• Contenu principal
  • Menu
OpenEdition Books
  • Accueil
  • Catalogue de 15987 livres
  • Éditeurs
  • Auteurs
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Partager
    • Facebook

    • X

    • Accueil
    • Catalogue de 15987 livres
    • Éditeurs
    • Auteurs
  • Ressources numériques en sciences humaines et sociales

    • OpenEdition
  • Nos plateformes

    • OpenEdition Books
    • OpenEdition Journals
    • Hypothèses
    • Calenda
  • Bibliothèques

    • OpenEdition Freemium
  • Suivez-nous

  • Lettre d’information
OpenEdition Search

Redirection vers OpenEdition Search.

À quel endroit ?
  • Éditions de l’École des hautes études en...
  • ›
  • Purushartha
  • ›
  • Visages du dharma
  • ›
  • Dharma and the Physicians. Ethic Reflect...
  • Éditions de l’École des hautes études en...
  • Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales
    Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales
    Informations sur la couverture
    Table des matières
    Liens vers le livre
    Informations sur la couverture
    Table des matières
    Formats de lecture

    Plan

    Plan détaillé Texte intégral 1. Introduction 2. Dharma and Health 3. Dharmic Conduct 4. Potential Conflicts 5. Adharma 6. Conclusions 7. Tables Bibliographie Notes de bas de page Auteur

    Visages du dharma

    Ce livre est recensé par

    Précédent Suivant
    Table des matières

    Dharma and the Physicians. Ethic Reflections in Early Ayurvedic Literature

    Le dharma et les médecins : réflexions éthiques dans la littérature ayurvédique ancienne

    Vitus Angermeier

    p. 71-94

    Résumés

    This essay shows that physicians of early Āyurveda adopted a pragmatic approach to the challenges dharma imposed on them. While the concept and its importance is generally accepted in the medical compendia, various passages stress the fact that good health is an indispensable precondition to pursue dharma and other goals of life. In the interests of health it is even tolerable to deceive patients if their religious convictions would get in the way of treatment.
    From the viewpoint of Āyurveda, following dharma not only means complying with the orthodox Brahminical prescriptions, but also implementing various health-preserving measures. This merger of ethical and medical ideals is shown in various lists of prescriptions for right conduct. Neglect of these rules constitutes a case of adharma and leads to shortened lifespans, suffering and unfavourable rebirths. The concept of dharma is even employed to explain the otherwise incomprehensible phenomenon of epidemics and the gradual decline of the human lifespan throughout the ages. This employment contains a sophisticated proto-ecological theory explaining the impairment of nature through human deeds and its consequences for the affected people.

    Cet essai montre que les médecins des débuts de l’Āyurveda ont adopté une approche pragmatique des défis que le dharma leur imposait. Si le concept et son importance sont généralement acceptés dans les recueils médicaux, divers passages soulignent le fait qu’une bonne santé est une condition préalable indispensable pour poursuivre le dharma et d’autres objectifs de la vie. Dans l’intérêt de la santé, il est même justifiable de tromper les patients si leurs convictions religieuses font obstacle au traitement.
    Du point de vue de l’Āyurveda, suivre le dharma signifie non seulement se conformer aux prescriptions brahmaniques orthodoxes, mais aussi mettre en œuvre diverses mesures de préservation de la santé. Cette fusion d’idéaux éthiques et médicaux est illustrée dans diverses listes de prescriptions pour observer une conduite correcte. Le non-respect de ces règles constitue un cas d’adharma et entraîne une réduction de la durée de vie, des souffrances et des renaissances défavorables. Le concept de dharma est même utilisé pour expliquer le phénomène autrement incompréhensible des épidémies et le déclin progressif de la durée de la vie humaine à travers les âges. Cette utilisation contient une théorie proto-écologique sophistiquée expliquant la dégradation de la nature par les actes humains et ses conséquences pour les personnes affectées.

    Remerciements

    I have to thank Dominik A. Haas for carefully going through this essay and providing several highly valuable suggestions for improvement. Words of gratitude also go to James McHugh, who discussed with me the issue of alcohol consumption in the light of dharmic precepts.

    Texte intégral 1. Introduction 2. Dharma and Health 3. Dharmic Conduct 3.1. … in general 3.2. … for physicians 4. Potential Conflicts 4.1. Meat 4.2. Alcohol 4.3. Unacceptable patients 5. Adharma 5.1. … as a cause for suffering 5.2. Lifespan 5.3. Epidemics and other calamities 6. Conclusions 7. Tables Bibliographie Primary Literature AHS AṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitāBhS BhelasaṃhitāCS CarakasaṃhitāHS a) Hārītasaṃhitāb) HārītasaṃhitāMS MānavadharmaśāstraKS KāśyapasaṃhitāSS Suśrutasaṃhitā Secondary Literature Notes de bas de page Auteur

    Texte intégral

    1. Introduction

    1Dharma, in general, encompasses the various social and religious norms and customs of a society. Those who adhere to it are promised prestige, success, wealth and a fortunate rebirth or even liberation from earthly existence (mokṣa). However, apparently not every segment of early South Asian society was totally in line with this paradigm.

    2In the preface of her 2018 book Against Dharma Wendy Doniger recapitulates: “[…] over the years I was always drawn to texts—and, indeed, to living movements—that challenged the dominant paradigm. By […] 2014, my work had become so tangled with issues of dissent and subversion that my understanding of the importance of the issues at stake in Indian history had deepened considerably” (Doniger 2018: ix–x). In her monograph, Doniger shows how the Kāmasūtra and the Arthaśāstra were influenced by heretic views, shaping their understanding of dharma and their advices how to deal with the established norms. In this study we will examine how the authors of the early medical compendia dealt with dharma.1 In order to get a differentiated picture of the situation I consider all extant early works of Āyurveda, i.e. the Carakasaṃhitā (CS), the Suśrutasaṃhitā (SS) the Bhelasaṃhitā (BhS), the Kāśyapasaṃhitā (KS), and the Hārītasaṃhitā (HS) as well as the slightly later Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā of Vāgbhaṭa (AHS).2

    3Of course, this is not the first article to discuss dharma in the context of Āyurveda. There is Arion Roșu’s fundamental 1978 study “Le trivarga dans l’āyurveda”, examining dharma as one of the three human pursuits besides artha and kāma. A more recent study by Dominik Wujastyk, “Medicine and Dharma” from 2004, elaborates on various aspects of the relation between Āyurveda and dharma by adducing anecdotes from modern Ayurvedic practice as well as evidence from the various medical compendia. Further works to discuss the relevance of dharma in Āyurveda are Rahul Peter Das’s 2000 “Notions of ‘Contagion’ in Classical Indian Medical Texts” and a study by Klaus Butzenberger and Mariana Federova on the “Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Buddhismus und klassischer indischer Medizin” from 1989 (cf. Roșu 1978; Wujastyk 2004; Das 2000: 75–76; Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 100–106). Furthermore, my own diploma thesis examines the role of dharma regarding the causation of epidemics and its influence on the lifespan (cf. Angermeier 2007: 36–51).

    4Now, what is the role of dharma in the context of Āyurveda? In their study Butzenberger and Federova provide a list of five aspects of dharma and connect the Ayurvedic usage of the term principally with the following one:

    Applied to human society, “dharma” summarises the coherence of any kind of society and in this respect includes the maxims and norms of the individual’s way of life within the community. Moreover, according to the Indian theorists of state and law, every caste, every profession has its partial ethos, which it cannot abandon without endangering the existence of the social cosmos.3

    5Thus, they view dharma in the Ayurvedic environment as part of a typical example of individual or even professional ethics. However, dharma is not only a collection of individual norms and maxims to be followed. Paul Hacker has shown in detail4 how both dharma and adharma are terms that describe different states of a concept or substance that is subject to transformation: dharma is first of all the norm to be followed (dharma before its performance), then the action according to the norm (dharma in performance) and finally the result of this action (dharma after performance). This, as we shall see later, applies also to its opposite, adharma. The result of action (may it be dharma or adharma) is accumulated or diminished by people in the course of their lives and, once it is “ripe”, brings about the fruit of their actions. Hacker summarizes dharma in the sense of norm as follows:

    In addition to morality proper, therefore, dharma also encompasses the entire external ritual, ceremonial side of religion, and everything in life is attended by such ceremonies and customs. Furthermore, the entire realm of civil law, criminal law, and statecraft—royal law—form part of dharma. And for offenses against the innumerable prescriptions rites of expiation and penance exist that also form part of dharma (Hacker 2006: 483).

    6He later concludes:

    Dharma is rather a concrete model of behavior with positive significance for salvation that somehow exists already before its performance and waits for realization, or rather it is a collection of such models. Dharma in performance then is conduct that corresponds to this model, adharma conduct that deviates from it. Finally, the dharma-substance exists also after performance as the realized model of behaviour. It is something like a doing that is congealed into a transcendental active ingredient, the substance of a done deed.5

    7Hacker bases his conclusions primarily on the Manusmṛti and the Āpastambadharmasūtra. Based on this template, it is possible to examine whether the notions of dharma in the medical texts are in agreement with the concepts from the Dharma literature, or whether there are striking deviations or even heresies. In the following, this shall be achieved by examining the aspects and meanings of dharma in all relevant contexts throughout the corpus of the early Ayurvedic literature. One further peculiarity of dharma that already Hacker stressed, is its substantial nature (see Hacker 2006: 489). It is something one strives for, it can be accumulated, diminished or even destroyed.

    2. Dharma and Health

    8In conformity with the orthodox view, the corpus of early Āyurveda contains numerous allusions to the three goals (trivarga) of life, i.e. meritorious deeds (dharma), material goods (artha) and sensual enjoyments (kāma)—sometimes supplemented by final liberation (mokṣa).6 In many of these cases the authors stress the necessity of good health as a precondition to pursue these goals. Right at the beginning of the CS, in the transmission story, the sages try to reach Indra for help against diseases that kept them from these pursuits:

    dharmārthakāmamokṣāṇām ārogyaṃ mūlam uttamam (15)
    rogās tasyāpahartāraḥ śreyaso jīvitasya ca.

    prādurbhūto manuṣyāṇām antarāyo mahān ayam (16)
    kaḥ syāt teṣāṃ śamopāya ity uktvā dhyānam āsthitāḥ.7

    “Freedom from disease is the ultimate root of meritorious deeds, material goods, sensual enjoyments and final liberation. Diseases are the destroyers of this [root] as well as of good life. This has turned out to be a great obstacle for human beings. What could be their means of pacification?” With such words they resorted to meditation.8

    9These are, however, not the only human aims mentioned in the examined compendia. In many cases kāma is substituted by more general terms of happiness, like kauśala, prīti, sukha or saukhya.9 In other places they are supplemented by fame (yaśas or kīrti).10 This addition prominently pops up in cases where the benefits for the physicians themselves are listed. The CS and the BhS contain a slightly divergent model of three human desires (eṣaṇa).

    10According to CS 1.11.3–6 an outright healthy person should pursue the desire for life (prāṇa), for wealth (dhana) and for the other world (paraloka). The more general prāṇa replaces kāma, dhana can be understood as a synonym of artha, and paraloka could include both dharma and mokṣa (on this passage cf. Roșu 1978: 259–260). In BhS 1.15.1–17 dharma is the third desire besides prāṇa and dhana. Roșu argues that kāma has to be understood as included in the desire for life. Additionally he mentions that according to Cakrapāṇidatta it is useless to teach man the pursuit of a goal to which instinct naturally impels him.11

    11The overall data situation (cf. table 1 in section 6) suggests that the early Ayurvedic physicians accepted the trivarga concept of three central human goals but employed their own adaptions according to contextual needs and were slightly critical of including kāma among these goals.

    12While health and the practice of Āyurveda was definitely seen as a precondition for the pursuit of dharma, in certain contexts conduct in concordance with the dharma norms is mentioned as critical for the success of medical practice. According to CS 1.11.46, the pursuit of the three goals is one of the preventive measures against mental diseases. CS 4.2.41 stresses that virtuous acts bring happiness, while contrary ones lead to sorrow. The BhS in 5.1.18 lists practising dharma as one of the means to a long lifespan. And also the AHS (1.2.20) notes that happiness is based on dharma.

    3. Dharmic Conduct

    13The previous section showed how heeding dharma as a norm and accumulating dharma as a substance is doubly connected with the practice of medicine—for one thing because health is the basis for dharmic conduct, on the other hand because adherence to dharma supports health. But what is included under the term dharma according to the Ayurvedic physicians?

    3.1. … in general

    14The examined compendia include long lists and even whole chapters on right conduct (sadvṛtta).12 Because these are lists written from a medical viewpoint, many items are more relevant to health than to dharma. The already mentioned section on the human desires in CS 1.11, however, contains a concise list of measures to reach “the other world” (paraloka) and calls them “ways to/of dharma” (dharmadvāra):

    evaṃ pramāṇaiś caturbhir upadiṣṭe punarbhave dharmadvāreṣv avadhīyeta; tadyathā—guruśuśrūṣāyām adhyayane vratacaryāyāṃ dārakriyāyām apatyotpādane bhṛtyabharaṇe ’tithipūjāyāṃ dāne ’nabhidhyāyāṃ tapasy anasūyāyāṃ dehavāṅmānase karmaṇy akliṣṭe dehendriyamano’rthabuddhyātmaparīkṣāyāṃ manaḥsamādhāv iti; yāni cānyāny apy evaṃvidhāni karmāṇi satām avigarhitāni svargyāṇi vṛttipuṣṭikarāṇi vidyāt tāny ārabheta kartuṃ; tathā kurvann iha caiva yaśo labhate pretya ca svargam. […] (CS 1.11.33)

    Thus, as [the existence of] rebirth has been pointed out by the four means of correct knowledge, one should immerse oneself in the ways to dharma, namely

    1. obedience to the teacher, study, observance of vows, marriage, bringing forth offspring, supporting dependants, honouring guests, generosity, freedom from covetousness, austerity, freedom from envy,

    2. unblemished actions of body, voice and mind,

    3. examination of body, senses, mind, objects, intellect and self,

    4. as well as concentration of mind.

    5. One should also undertake all other similar actions that are not despised by noble people and that lead to heaven.

    Acting like this one attains fame here and heaven after death. […]

    15The habits and practices collected under the first point are quite orthodox ideals also found in the Dharma literature. The second point, in contrast, refers to a model of causes of suffering that is elaborated later in the same lesson.13 The passage 1.11.39 lists actions of body, voice and mind that lead to suffering:

    • Forceful holding and flinging, unfavourable stumbling, falling, exerting the limbs, damaging the limbs, tormenting with punches, suppression of the respiration, tantalization etc. is a defectiveness regarding the body.

    • Defamatory, untruthful, untimely, quarrelsome, loose, unpolite and rough words etc. is a defectiveness regarding the voice.

    • Fear, grief, anger, greed, delusion, arrogance, jealousy, mistaken views etc. is a defectiveness of the mind.

    16Also the third point in the passage translated above (examination of body, etc.) belongs to the medical domain, describing the aspects a physician has to keep in mind during a checkup. Thus the list apparently contains a mixture of generally accepted and other, more medical dharmic ideals.

    17Thus dharma as a norm is a dynamic concept that includes every conduct that is seen as “good” in a society. Accordingly, personal dharma depends on the social status of the individual. Though interestingly, caste and class are no extensive issue in the medical compendia, some passages make clear that the physicians assume varying dharmas according to their individual status in society. A discussion on the relevance of Āyurveda for different classes, found in the CS and in the KS makes this very clear. According to a passage in the CS Āyurveda should be studied by Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas alike; “by the Brāhmanas as a favour for all beings, by the Kṣatriyas as protection, by the Vaiśyas as a profession and by all to collect dharma, artha and kāma.”14 Although the three classes have different obligations, everyone can interpret the study and practice of Āyurveda as included among their dharmic obligations. Additionally the practice of Āyurveda is presented as a perfect means to pursue the three human goals, which in fact are common to all classes. The remainder of the passage explains in what way the practice of Āyurveda provides these goals. The dharma of the physician emerges because “he makes efforts to alleviate the disorders of those who have metaphysical knowledge, of those remaining on a meritorious path, or of expounders of dharma, or of his father, mother, brothers, kinfolk and teachers and because he muses on, teaches and practices the metaphysical knowledge told in Āyurveda.”15 The KS passage in 3.2.10 says more or less the same in other words.

    3.2. … for physicians

    18The practice of Āyurveda is presented as a dharmic activity in many passages throughout the examined compendia. In many cases the physicians are promised both dharma and fame (yaśas). The KS states that one should never prescribe strong remedies for weak patients in order to protect the physician’s dharma and his fame (see KS 9.2.28). The HS claims that a doctor who healed a person from a fever, produced by the three morbific factors bile wind and phlegm together, obtains dharma and fame (yaśas) (see HS 3.2.152.). The SS, in a lesson on the initiation of a medical student, explains who should be accepted as a patient and who is not to be treated. It promises friends, fame and the three human goals as reward for those who follow the rules (see SS 1.2.8). Similar rewards are promised to those who cure difficult patients and master surgery (see SS 1.10.8 and 1.25.44). On the other side, the CS warns against bad doctors who have given up dharma. Even by talking to them one risks going to hell (see CS 1.1.130). In contrast to that, the lesson on Rasāyana gives a description of the ideal physician (CS 6.1.4.56–62):

    bhiṣag apy āturān sarvān svasutān iva yatnavān,
    ābādhebhyo hi saṃrakṣed icchan dharmam anuttamam.
    (56)

    dharmārthaṃ cārthakāmārtham āyurvedo maharṣibhiḥ,
    prakāśito dharmaparair icchadbhiḥ sthānam akṣaram.
    (57)

    nārthārthaṃ nāpi kāmārtham atha bhūtadayāṃ prati,
    vartate yaś cikitsāyāṃ sa sarvam ativartate.
    (58)

    kurvate ye tu vṛttyarthaṃ cikitsāpaṇyavikrayam,
    te hitvā kāñcanaṃ rāśiṃ pāṃśurāśim upāsate.
    (59)

    dāruṇaiḥ kṛṣyamāṇānāṃ gadair vaivasvatakṣayam,
    chittvā vaivasvatān pāśān jīvitaṃ yaḥ prayacchati.
    (60)

    dharmārthadātā sadṛśas tasya nehopalabhyate,
    na hi jīvitadānād dhi dānam anyad viśiṣyate.
    (61)

    paro bhūtadayā dharma iti matvā cikitsayā,
    vartate yaḥ sa siddhārthaḥ sukham atyantam aśnute.
    (62)

    Longing for an imperishable status the physician, too, should protect all his patients from afflictions as if they were his own sons, wishing the highest dharma. (56)

    Longing for an imperishable status, the great sages, for whom dharma was paramount, revealed the Āyurveda for the sake of dharma as well as for the sake of material goods and sensual enjoyment. (57)

    He who is engaged in medical treatment not for the sake of material goods nor for the sake of sensual enjoyments but out of compassion for the creature, exceeds everyone. (58)

    Those, however, who sell medical products for the sake of their livelihood abandon a pile of gold and sit beside a pile of dust. (59)

    For him who provides life by cutting the nooses of death for those being dragged to the abode of death by frightful diseases, no equal donor of dharma and artha can be found here, for, as is well known, no other donation surpasses the donation of life. (60–61)

    He who is engaged in medical treatment considering compassion for the creature the highest dharma accomplishes all his goals and enjoys unlimited happiness. (62)

    19Here, we encounter dharma in all its aspects. In 62 it is the norm that the physician should follow, in 56 and 57a as well as in 61 it is the substantial dharma one should accumulate. And in 57c it can be both: the norm they follow or the substance the sages collect by following this norm. This hints towards a problem regarding translation: Of course the dharma we are talking about here, is in fact one thing and not two different concepts. We merely have no English word that can convey the various aspects sufficiently. Therefore, if we translate dharma with various equivalents it is important to keep in mind that they merely stress specific aspects of one and the same concept.

    20Secondly, in contrast to earlier mentioned passages, these stanzas here place dharma above the other human goals. They do not even mention kāma, and a physician practising for the accumulation of material goods is displayed as inferior. Nevertheless, it remains clear from many other passages that the practice of Āyurveda also provides the physician with success in the other goals of life. The main intention of his practice, however, always has to be dharma; the other rewards should be accepted as positive side effects.

    21A third issue with this passage is the fact that we cannot always be sure whose dharma we are talking about. Does the physician in 56 wishes for excellent dharma for himself or for his patients? Even more so, are the sages seeking the highest dharma and immortality for themselves, or for everyone? The notions of compassion strongly suggest that this passage is not about egoistically accumulating dharma for oneself. It rather implies that such self-centered undertaking would be futile.

    22While most passages presented so far are concerned with the accumulation of positive dharma, there are certain references—especially in the KS—that show that dharma can also be lost or destroyed. For example, according to a lesson on the treatment of phakka, a disease that could very well be what is nowadays known as marasmus, a special medicine made out of the plant brāhmī16 should not be given to Śudras, because it leads to the decay of their progeny, keeps them from going to heaven after death and destroys their dharma (see KS 6.17.24–25). Another passage warns against the usage of emetics for children, as this could kill the child and destroy the dharma of the physician (see KS 7.3.5). Similarly, as mentioned above, a doctor should never prescribe strong remedies for weak patients in order to protect his dharma and fame (see KS 9.2.28).

    23So, in conclusion we can state that dharma provides the ethical framework for the medical profession. However, there have been certain areas of potential conflict, where medical practice and orthodox ideals might clash. This will be the topic if the next section.

    4. Potential Conflicts

    4.1. Meat

    24At the beginning of his 2004 essay Dominik Wujastyk states about the prescriptions given in the Dharmaśāstras and in the Ayurvedic compendia: “Whenever two magisteria (I borrow the term from Gould) overlap like this, one can expect conflict to arise sooner or later.”17 The article in consequence is about several such conflicts and their implications. Besides a story from the younger history of Āyurveda, Wujastyk examines extensively the issue of meat before he turns to a discussion on the goals of Āyurveda. The early Ayurvedic compendia indeed suggest the use of meat in numerous medical prescriptions and show little concern for a potentially negative ethical aspect of this practice. Wujastyk describes how only at a later time, beginning from the end of the first century A.D., as vegetarianism gained more and more popularity in South Asia, physicians started to show sensitivity for this topic. The conflict with the religious prescriptions, however, might not have been as grave as might be expected. The Dharmśāstras certainly do allow the consumption of meat. Wujastyk here mentions two aspects. For one thing it is acceptable or even mandatory to eat meat during certain rituals. On the other hand, as visible from the Mānavadharmaśāstra, eating meat is seen as a very usual worldly activity, comparable with alcohol consumption or sex. It is only obstructive if one attempts to reach liberation (mokṣa). As Āyurveda is not concerned with liberation but with the safeguarding of a long and healthy lifespan, there is nothing wrong with the use of animal products for medical applications (cf. Wujastyk 2004: 833–836).

    25Some passages, however, show that early Ayurvedic physicians certainly were confronted with patients who, for religious reasons, were reluctant to eat meat. In the CS, in the lesson on the treatment of consumption (rājayakṣman) the author suggests a long list of animals whose meat should be eaten as a countermeasure. Meat of carnivores is described as especially beneficial.18 There it is suggested to conceal the actual ingredients of the diet in certain cases (CS 6.8.156–157):

    māṃsāni yāny anabhyāsād aniṣṭāni prayojayet,
    teṣūpadhā, sukhaṃ bhoktuṃ tathā śakyāni tāni hi.
    (156)

    jānañ jugupsan naivādyāj jagdhaṃ vā punar ullikhet,
    tasmāc chadmopasiddhāni māṃsāny etāni dāpayet.
    (157)

    There should be a trick in the case of meats that are undesired because they are not customary. In this way it is easily possible to eat these. If he comes to know and despises it, he might either not eat it or, if he has already eaten it, he might make it come up again. Therefore one should serve these meats with a disguise.

    26Though the passage does not openly speak of ethical or religious concerns about eating meat, it certainly encourages the physician to deceive his patient, whatever reasons for rejecting meat are involved—of course for the higher good of protecting their life.19 Other physicians were more sensitive regarding the feelings of their patients. For example, the KS, in the lesson on procreation, explains that the constituents of the body are best increased by ingestion of the very same substances: Ingested meat increases flesh, blood increases blood, etc. But because such substances are undesirable due to the fear of adharma, the author advises to replace them with pure foodstuffs with identical qualities.20 It has to be noted that this passage does not define eating meat as adharma. It only indicates that there indeed were patients who feared that it constitutes a case of adharma.

    27As numerous passages present the consumption of meat as totally accepted, we can conclude that the examined compendia up to the AHS (seventh century) were composed in societies that generally included meat in their dietary habits. Like today, certain meats were seen as disgusting, but without an identifiable religious background. On the other hand there were certain groups that rejected eating meat. And this rejection was accepted as a beneficial practice concerning the pursuit of final liberation but occasionally presented a hindrance for proper medical treatment.

    4.2. Alcohol

    28The case is similar with alcohol. The compendia show a nearly schizophrenic attitude towards the imbibition of spirituous beverages. In the lesson on the aetiology of alcoholic intoxication (madyātyaya), Vāgbhaṭa states after a description of the stages of this disease (AHS 3.6.8):

    dharmādharmaṃ sukhaṃ duḥkham arthānarthaṃ hitāhitam,
    yad āsakto na jānāti kathaṃ tacchīlayed budhaḥ.

    Someone who is addicted [to alcohol] does not know dharma and adharma, happiness and sorrow, advantage and disadvantage, salutary and unsalutary. How could a wise one indulge in it?

    29And later, in the lesson on the treatment of the very same disease, after a long eulogy on the benefits of alcohol, he recommends:

    rakṣatā jīvitaṃ tasmāt peyam ātmavatā sadā,
    āśritopāśritahitaṃ paramaṃ dharmasādhanam.
    21

    Therefore a wise one—to protect his life—should always drink [alcohol], beneficial for those who resort to it and those who employ it,22 the greatest means of accomplishing dharma.

    30Apparently the physicians had to deal with a complex situation. The most generous patients belonged to a class where drinking was definitely popular. Quite some time and effort was put into developing and producing numerous beverages of various taste and strength.23 Additionally, alcoholic preparations could be used against many afflictions and were of great use in Āyurveda. On the other side, misuse of alcohol constituted a serious problem for health and society, especially if it spread within the elite. In this situation the physicians took a quite rational standpoint, presenting the ambivalences of alcohol as they were, praising the advantages of its reasonable usage and demonizing the dangers of its misuse. The ability to consume alcohol in a measured manner is obviously a question of character. A CS passage on the character dominated by a clear mind (sattva) argues:

    madyasya ca guṇān sarvān yathoktān sa samaśnute,
    dharmārthayor apīḍāyai naraḥ sattvaguṇocchritaḥ.
    (70)24

    And a person, advanced through the quality of a clear mind (sattva), enjoys all the mentioned benefits of alcohol without damaging dharma and material success.

    31Generally, in Āyurveda sattva denotes the pure, unobstructed mind, which however may be impaired by two factors, agitation (rajas) and darkness (tamas).25 Based on this concept the examined compendia describe different character types (cf. for example SS 3.1.18 and 3.4.81–99). Here, in CS 6.24.74–79, three types of drinking sessions are distinguished, based on the characters present at the party. While the drinking sessions of clear-minded (sattva) characters are civilized and pleasurable events, those of people hampered by darkness are unpleasurable and end with confusion, anger and sleep. People with a predominance of agitation have mediocre parties that often end badly.

    32To sum up, to the eye of the physician alcohol consumption is not a question of religious or social norms but of quantity and character. The medical compendia do not mention that drinking is forbidden or restricted for certain classes of society (not even brahmins). Depending on one’s ability to control his drinking habits, alcohol might either be of help for a successful life regarding all three human goals or it can destroy a human existence.

    4.3. Unacceptable patients

    33While Western medicine, going back to the Hippocratic oath, is adamant in demanding that every sick person has to be tended and treated, all the Ayurvedic compendia provide rules about deadly diseases and incurable patients. If a physician notices certain signs on the diseased or in his surroundings, he should refrain from treating him—mostly because it would be bad for his reputation. While this is certainly at odds with Western medical ethics, it is still to be discussed if such behaviour can be reconciled with the norms of dharma. As Butzenberger and Fedorova show, these instructions clash with the concept of compassion with all beings, dominant in Buddhism and also prevalent in the medical compendia (see Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 101–106). While the earlier texts ignore this contradiction, in Vāgbhaṭa’s AHS they see an attempt to attenuate it by recommending to only abstain if the disease is very difficult to treat, brings about desire, delusion and discontent, if signs of death are manifest and if it already destroys the senses of the patient. Butzenberger and Fedorova connect this attenuation with Vagbhaṭa’s Buddhist background.26 Nevertheless, the prescription to not treat moribund patients also applies in the AHS. In fact it seems to be part of the physician’s dharma, as shown in a stanza in the CS summarizing the modes of behaviour or rather prescribed emotions for a physician towards his patients (CS 1.9.26; on this stanza cf. also Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 101):

    maitrī kāruṇyam ārteṣu śakye prītir upekṣaṇam,
    prakṛtistheṣu bhūteṣu vaidyavṛttiś caturvidheti.
    (26)

    Friendship and compassion regarding the sick, in the case of curability gladness, indifference against those creatures who go their natural way27—this is the fourfold behaviour of the physician.

    34Moribund people are not the only ones a physician, concerned about his reputation, should avoid. For example, the CS lesson on epidemics contains a longer list of people not to be treated (CS 3.3.45):

    doṣāvasecanam anyad vā bheṣajaṃ prāptakālam apy āturasya naivaṃvidhasya kuryāt. tad yathā—anapavādapratīkārasyādhanasyāparicārakasya vaidyamāninaś caṇḍasyāsūyakasya tīvrādharmarucer28 atikṣīṇabalamāṃsaśoṇitasyāsādhyarogopahatasya mumūrṣuliṅgānvitasya ceti. evaṃvidhaṃ hy āturam upacaran bhiṣak pāpīyasāyaśasā yogam ṛcchatīti.

    The extraction of the morbific factors or also any other treatment shall not be carried out in favour of a patient of the following kind, even if the time is appropriate, namely those

    • who are without countermeasures against slander,

    • who are poor,29

    • who have no servants,

    • who fancy themselves as physicians,

    • who are violent or envious,

    • who intensely rejoice in adharma,

    • whose strength, flesh and blood is overly diminished,

    • who are afflicted by an incurable disease,

    • and who are marked by the signs of a moribund.

    After all, a physician treating such an ill person gets a very bad ill-repute.

    35There are several similar lists in the CS and in the other examined compendia, all listing these or related characteristics of people not to be treated.30 These lists make it very clear that not treating certain needy people was in fact not against dharma, but on the contrary a means to enforce dharma. We already mentioned the passage from the SS in section 3 that lists both, people to be treated and people not to be accepted as patients. The first category contains twice-born (dvija, i.e. Brahmins, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas), teachers (guru), friends (mitra), mendicants (pravrajita), dependents (upanata), respectables (sādhu), those without a protector (anātha, i.e. probably widows and orphans) and guests (abhyupagata).31 Unacceptable patients are hunters (vyādha), bird-catchers (śākunika), fallen ones (patita)32 and sinners (pāpakārin) (see SS 1.2.8). This divides the people into insiders and outsiders; medical treatment is reserved for the former. While the hunt was actually one of the royal pleasures, the huntsmen mentioned here apparently belonged to a despicable group outside acceptable society.

    36Nevertheless the border between difficult and unacceptable patients is a fine one. The SS also lists characters, like the king, women, children, the aged, (again) those who fancy themselves as physicians, those who conceal their disease, the poor etc. as difficult to cure. If, however, the physician succeeds in such cases he can obtain dharma, artha, kāma and fame.33

    5. Adharma

    37As stated in the introduction, the opposite of dharma is adharma. Again, the concept has three layers. First of all adharma denotes behaviour that is contrary to the dharmic norm. This includes everything that is not in accordance with the accepted laws, norms and the convictions of authoritative people (including physicians). The SS, for example, designates sleep during the day and sex with menstruating women as adharma. As noted above, the KS mentions that at least certain people see the intake of meat and blood as adharma.34 Secondly, adharma is the offence itself, and thirdly, it is the subtle substance which adheres to the individual who committed the offence and affects its future.

    5.1. … as a cause for suffering

    38In the Ayurvedic concepts explaining the causation of suffering dharma plays a minor role (see Angermeier forthc.). It is important to note that in general, diseases are attributed to more concrete causes. Passages that directly ascribe medically relevant effects to dharma are rare. However, the texts mention certain direct effects of adharmic deeds. Rahul Peter Das refers to the notion that evil acts or vices (pāpa) lead to skin diseases (kuṣṭha) (see Das 2000: 73 and SS 2.5.30). And the CS mentions that abstaining from unwholesome dharma, artha and kāma provides protection from mental diseases. Conversely, such unwholesome behaviour would lead to mental diseases. However, this seems to be a general advice because the same passage provides more concrete causes of mental diseases, namely not attaining the desired and attaining the undesired (iṣṭasya lābhāl lābhāc cāniṣṭasya) (see CS 1.11.45–46). Finally, the

    39CS generalises that meritorious deeds bring forth happiness while the unmeritorious ones lead to sorrow, and the HS states that neglecting dharma leads to a shorter lifespan (see CS 4.2.41 and HS 2.5.2). Apart from that, the examined compendia only contain accounts of the effects of adharma after death. According to the CS, talking with quacks leads to hell because they have given up dharma, are evil, the death personified and ignorant (see CS 1.1.130). In contrast to that, the SS does not threaten with hell but with a compromised next life. According to a passage in the first lesson of its Śārīrasthāna dharma and adharma govern the form of rebirth; they are the cause for the transmigration of the individual soul (puruṣa/kṣetrajñā) to an animal, human or divine embodiment. The following chapter describes the birth of twins as an effect of adharma. And also the merits and demerits of the body parts of a newborn are—according to the SS—due to the dharma and adharma from his previous life.35 The other examined compendia lack such assertions.

    5.2. Lifespan

    40Apart from these individual consequences, personal deeds have two more general effects. For one thing they are connected with the decrease of the average lifespan throughout the ages of the world. On the other hand they can influence the future of others and, as a kind of collective dharma, cause misery for whole populations. Both effects are described in greatest detail in the CS lesson on epidemics.

    41The CS lesson on epidemics is composed as a dialogue between the preceptor Punarvasu Ātreya and his pupil Agniveśa, the mythical composer of the lost Agniveśatantra that forms the basis of the CS. After his explanations on the causation of epidemics, Ātreya moves on to argue that adharma is not only responsible for temporary calamities but has always been the single reason for misfortune.36 He describes in detail the virtues of the people in the first, the perfect age (Kṛtayuga)37 and the high quality of their food. But it is precisely because of these paradise-like conditions that people became overweight, tired and flabby already in that age. They developed greed, hostility, untrue speech, desire, anger and so on, and because of this chain of causes a quarter of the dharma was lost in the second age (Tretāyuga), which in turn reduced the amount of rainfall by a quarter, which in turn naturally affected the quality of the earth and the food. Thus the health of the people decayed and their life span was shortened.38 This deterioration continued in the following ages as the subsequent stanza confirms (CS 3.3.25):

    yuge yuge dharmapādaḥ krameṇānena hīyate,
    guṇapādaś ca bhūtānām evaṃ lokaḥ pralīyate.
    (25)

    With every age, a quarter of the dharma is gradually lost, as well as a quarter of the [good] qualities of living beings. Thus the world dissolves.

    42Here we meet an interesting, proto-ecological idea: The decay of human behaviour has environmental consequences that in turn fall back on the people themselves. We will encounter similar concepts in the following paragraphs on the dharmic causation of calamities like epidemics.

    5.3. Epidemics and other calamities

    43The preceding section already made clear that dharma is not always a simply personal matter. This concept of collective dharma with environmental consequences, in fact, is an important theme in the whole CS lesson on epidemics. After Agniveśa’s question about the causes for the degeneration of the environmental conditions,39 Ātreya explains that if leaders make bad decisions, their actions will also affect their subordinates and relatives:

    […] sarveṣām apy agniveśa vāyvādināṃ yad vaiguṇyam utpadyate tasya mūlam adharmaḥ, tanmūlaṃ cāsatkarma pūrvakṛtam; tayor yoniḥ prajñāparādha eva.

    tadyathā - yadā vai deśanagaranigamajanapadapradhānā dharmam utkramyādharmeṇa prajāṃ vartayanti, tadāśritopāśritāḥ paurajanapadā vyavahāropajīvinaś ca tam adharmam abhivardhayanti, tataḥ so 'dharmaḥ prasabhaṃ dharmam antardhatte, tatas te 'ntarhitadharmāṇo devatābhir api tyajyante; teṣāṃ tathā 'ntarhitadharmaṇām adharmaṇām adharmapradhānānām apakrāntadevatānām ṛtavo vyāpadyante; tena nāpo yathākālaṃ devo varṣati na vā varṣati vikṛtaṃ vā varṣati, vātā na samyag abhivānti, kṣitir vyāpadyate, salilāny upaśuṣyanti, auṣadhayaḥ svabhāvaṃ parihāyāpadyante vikṛtiṃ; tata uddhvaṃsante janapadāḥ spṛśyābhyavahāryadoṣāt.40

    […] Whatever deficiency of all conditions such as wind etc. occurs, o Agniveśa, its cause is adharma, and the cause of this is bad action (asatkarman) done in the past; the origin of these two is the offence against reason (prajñāparādha).41

    More precisely, if the elite in the regions, cities, markets and countries42 disregard the dharma and cause the subjects to behave in an adharmic way, then the dependents and their relatives, citizens and countries as well as those who make a living from trade reinforce this adharma. Then this adharma forcibly conceals the dharma. Then all those whose dharma has been concealed are also abandoned by the deities. To the disadvantage of those whose dharma is thus concealed, of those for whom adharma is dominant and from whom the deities have departed, the seasons are spoiled. As a result, the god either no longer creates rain at the right time, or he creates no rain at all, or only rain in an unnatural way. The winds no longer blow in the right manner, the soil spoils, the waters dry out, the medicinal herbs lose their own nature and change for the worse.

    44This creates a system of dharmic dependencies and responsibilities. Persons on whom others depend have a responsibility to them, because their actions influence the personal dharma of these people. They do this directly, because they influence the collective dharma of a group or society through actions they perform in their position of power, and indirectly, because they create an unfavourable environment and set a bad example, whereby other members of society reinforce the adharma by imitating it.

    45The CS lesson on epidemics is singular in its astute analysis of the emergence of environmental disasters. But at least one passage in the SS also refers to a special dharmic responsibility of kings and a second one describes, though less elaborate than the CS passage, that whole states can be afflicted by adharma by means of enchantment, curse or the wrath of demons.43

    6. Conclusions

    46As we could see, in contrast to Donigers findings in the Kāmasūtra and the Arthaśāstra, the Ayurvedic physicians generally accepted the rules of dharma and even developed a quite elaborate concept of collective dharma to explain otherwise incomprehensible medical events of mass affliction. In areas of potential conflict, they evaded the problem by strictly distinguishing between the conflicting domains of science and religion. Furthermore, the flexibility of the norms of dharma apparently left enough room to allow the consumption of impure substances for medical purposes. After all, meat and alcohol were quite popular components of the diet of most social groups at that time. Prohibitions for Brahmins, which definitely existed, are not mentioned because they were none of the physicians’ business. Probably the conflict with the world of dharma was not as big as that with the world of mokṣa—a concept that prospered in the milieu of the heterodox traditions and only started to have a deeper influence on Āyurveda and Brahmanism.44

    7. Tables

    Table 1: Human goals (trivarga/puruṣārtha) and similar concepts

    dharma artha kāma mokṣa yaśas/kīrti (fame) kauśala/prīti/ śreyas/sukha/saukhya (joy/welfare) satya (truth) ahiṃsā (abstaining from killing) prāṇa (life) dhana (wealth)
    CS 1.1.15cd–17ab ● ● ● ●
    CS 1.7.30 ● ● ●
    CS 1.8.32 ● ● (●) (● y.)
    CS 1.11.3–6 (●) ● ●
    CS 1.11.46 ● ● ●
    CS 1.12.13 ● ● ●
    CS 1.16.38 ● ● ●
    CS 1.25.42–44 ● ●
    CS 1.30.29 ● ● ●
    CS 4.4.37 ● ● ●
    CS 4.8.66 ● ● ● k.
    CS 6.1.4.55–62 ● ●
    CS 6.2.1.3 ● ● ● y. ● p.
    CS 6.2.1.6–7 ● ● (●)
    CS 6.24.70 ● ●
    BhS 1.5.18cd ● ● ●
    BhS 1.15.1–7 ● ● ●
    KS 1.26.4 ● ●
    KS 1.28.16 ● ● ●
    KS 3.2.10 ● ● ● ●
    KS 8.9.11 ● ● ● ●
    KS 8.9.18 ● ● ● ●
    KS 8.9.26cd–28ab ● ● k. ● su.
    KS 9.2.28 ● ● y.
    KS 9.5.5–6ab ● ● ● ●
    KS 9.5.64–65ab ● ● ● y.
    HS 1.1.18–19 ● ● ● k. ●●● sau./ś./su.
    HS 1.3.4 ● ● ●
    HS 3.2.152 ● ● y.
    SS 1.2.8 ● ● ● ● y.
    SS 1.10.8 ● ● ● ● y.
    SS 1.25.44 ● ● (●) ● k.
    SS 1.34.19–20 ● ●
    SS 3.4.97 ● ● ●
    SS 3.10.53 ● ● ●
    AHS 1.1.2 ● ● ● su.
    AHS 6.40.82 ● ● ● y. ● su.

    Table 2: Arrangement of the sections (sthānas) in the examined works

    CS, BhS KS SS HS AS, AHS
    1 Sūtra Sūtra Sūtra Prathama (≈ Sūtra) Sūtra
    2 Nidāna lost Nidāna Dvitīya (≈ Indriya) Śārīra
    3 Vimāna Vimāna Śārīra Tṛtīya (≈ Nidāna/Cikitsā) Nidāna
    4 Śārīra Śārīra Cikitsā Caturtha (≈ Sūtra/Vimāna) Cikitsā
    5 Indriya Indriya Kalpa Pañcama (≈ Kalpa) Kalpa
    6 Cikitsā Cikitsita Uttara Ṣaṣṭha (≈ Śārīra) Uttara
    7 Kalpa Siddhi Pariśiṣṭādhyaya
    8 Siddhi Kalpa
    9 Khila

    Bibliographie

    Primary Literature

    AHS Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā

    A.M. Kuṇṭe & K. R. Śāstrī Navre (1935), The Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā of Vāgbhaṭa, with the Commentaries Sarvāṅgasundarā of Aruṇadatta & Āyurvedarasāyana of Hemādri, ed. by Sadāśiva Śāstrī Parāḍakara, 6th ed., Bombay, Nirṇaya Sāgar Press.

    BhS Bhelasaṃhitā

    Venkatasubramania Sastri & Rajeswara Sarma, R. (1977), Bhelasaṁhitā, New Delhi, Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine & Homeopathy.

    CS Carakasaṃhitā

    Jādavaji Trikamji (1941), The Carakasaṃhitā of Agniveśa, Revised by Charaka and Dṛidhabala, With the Āyurveda-Dīpikā Commentary of Cakrapāṇidatta, New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal.

    HS a) Hārītasaṃhitā

    Raison, A. (1974), La Hārītasaṃhitā, texte médical sanskrit avec un index de nomenclature âyurvédique, Pondichéry, Institut français d’indologie (only the first sthāna).

    b) Hārītasaṃhitā

    Ravidatta Śāstri (1950), Hārītasaṃhitā: Śrīmadātreyamaharṣihārītamunisaṃvādarūpā vaidyakagranthaḥ, Mumbai, Gaṃgāviṣṇu Śrīkṛṣṇadāsa. (sthānas 2–7).

    MS Mānavadharmaśāstra

    Olivelle, P. & Olivelle, S. (2004), Manu’s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

    KS Kāśyapasaṃhitā

    Hemarāja Śarma (1953), Kāśyapa Samhitā (or Vṛddhajivakīya Tantra) by Vṛddha Jīvaka, revised by Vātsya, Kashi Sanskrit Series 154, Banaras, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.

    SS Suśrutasaṃhitā

    Jādavji Trikamji & Rām Nārāyaṇ (1938), Suśrutasaṃhitā of Suśruta: With the Nibandhasaṅgraha Commentary of Śrī Dalhanāchārya and the Nyāyachandrikā Pañjikā of Śrī Gayadāsāchārya, Chaukhamba Ayurvijnan Granthamala 42, Bombay, Nirṇaya Sāgar Press.

    Secondary Literature

    Aalto, P. (1963), “Madyam Apeyam,” in C. Vogel, ed., Jñānamuktāvalī. Commemoration Volume in Honour of Johannes Nobel on the Occasion of his seventieth Birthday Offered by Pupils and Colleagues, New Delhi, International Academy of Indian Culture (“Sarasvati Vihara Series”), pp. 17–37.

    Achaya, K.T. (1991), “Alcoholic Fermentation and its Products in Ancient India”, Indian Journal of History of Science, 26 (2), pp. 123–129.

    Angermeier, V. (2007), Über die Auslöschung von Land und Leuten. Die Ursachen von Massensterben und Schutzmaßnahmen gegen diese gemäß Carakasaṃhitā, Vi. 3, Diploma thesis, Wien, Universität Wien. https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1083357 (slightly corrected 2010 version; last access December 4th 2020).

    Angermeier, V. (forthc.), “Causes of Suffering: From the Buddha to Āyurveda,” in V. Negribs & Y. Shen, eds., Puṣpikā: Proceedings of the 12th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (Oxford, 2019), Heidelberg, Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing.

    Butzenberger, K. & Fedorova, M. (1989), “Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Buddhismus und klassischer indischer Medizin,” Sudhoffs Archiv, 73 (1), pp. 88–109.

    Chattopadhyaya, B. (2018), The Concept of Bharatavarsha and Other Essays, Albany, State University of New York Press (“SUNY series in Hindu studies”).

    Das, R.P. (2000), “Notions of ‘Contagion’ in Classical Indian Medical Texts,” in L.-I. Conrad & D. Wujastyk, eds., Contagion: Perspectives from Pre-Modern Societies, Aldershot, Ashgate, pp. 55–78.

    Doniger, W. (2018), Against Dharma: Dissent in the Ancient Indian Sciences of Sex and Politics, New Haven, Yale University Press.

    Gould, S.J. (2001), Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life, London, Jonathan Cape.

    Hacker, P. (2006), “Dharma in Hinduism”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 34 (5), pp. 479–496.

    Hilgenberg, L. & Kirfel, W. (1941), Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā. Ein altindisches Lehrbuch der Heilkunde. Aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übertragen mit Einleitung, Anmerkungen und Indices, Leiden, Brill.

    Ingalls, D.H.H. (1957), “Dharma and Moksa,” Philosophy East and West, 7 (1/2), pp. 41–8.

    Jādavaji Trikamji (1941), The Carakasaṃhitā of Agniveśa, Revised by Charaka and Dṛidhabala, with the Āyurveda-Dīpikā Commentary of Cakrapāṇidatta, New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal. (Reprint: Varanasi, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Sansthan, 1981.) Edited by Vaidya Jādavji Trikamji Āchārya.

    McHugh, J. (2021), An Unholy Brew: Alcohol in Indian History and Religions, New York, Oxford University Press.

    Meulenbeld, G.J. (1999), A History of Indian Medical Literature, vol. I, Groningen, Egbert Forsten.

    Meulenbeld, G.J. (2000), A History of Indian Medical Literature, vol. II, Groningen, Egbert Forsten.

    Olivelle, P. (2006), Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions, Firenze, Firenze University Press.

    Olivelle, P. (2019), “From Trivarga to Puruṣārtha: A Chapter in Indian Moral Philosophy,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 139 (2), pp. 381–96.

    Roșu, A. (1978), “Études ayurvédiques: le Trivarga dans l’Āyurveda,” Indologica Taurinensia, 6, pp. 255–60.

    Van Buitenen, J.A.B. (1957), “Dharma and Moksa,” Philosophy East and West, 7 (1/2), pp. 33–40.

    Wujastyk, D. (2001), The Roots of Āyurveda: Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings, revised ed., New Delhi, Penguin Books India.

    Wujastyk, D. (2004), “Medicine and Dharma,” Journal of Indian Philosophy, 32 (5/6), pp. 831–842.

    Zimmer, H.R. (1946), Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, New York, Harper.

    Notes de bas de page

    1The works of this genre are comparable to the Arthaśāstra and the Kāmasūtra in that they were completed around the same time under similar societal circumstances.

    2The Carakasaṃhitā, focussing on internal medicine, and the Suśrutasaṃhitā, with an emphasis on surgery, both roughly date from the period between 250 BC and 150 AD. The Bhelasaṃhitā, originating around the same time, belongs to the same school as the CS and has a similar structure. Transmitted in a single manuscript, it is in a worse state than the other compendia. The Kāśyapasaṃhitā, transmitted in two fragmentary manuscripts, is focused on birth and paediatrics and may have been composed at the same time as the CS. The Hārītasaṃhitā is also a work on internal medicine but differs from the CS and the BhS in terms of structure and presentation of the content. All of them were revised and partially enhanced in the centuries that followed. A considerably younger compendium ascribed to Vāgbhaṭa, the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā (AHS), came into existence around 700 AD and is heavily dependent on the two popular foundational works CS and SS. Where advisable and available, I have also consulted the extant commentaries. For further information on the CS, the SS and the AHS, their contents, authors, and dates cf. Meulenbeld 1999, concerning the BhS, KS and HS see Meulenbeld 2000, 13–60. For a synopsis of their section names cf. table 2 in section 7. The medical parts of the Bower Mansucript contain no relevant material.

    3My translation of: “Auf die menschliche Gesellschaft übertragen faßt „dharma“ den Zusammenhalt jeglicher Art von Sozietät zusammen und beinhaltet insofern die Maximen und Normen der Lebensführung des einzelnen in der Gemeinschaft. Jede Kaste, jeder Berufsstand hat zudem nach dem Verständnis der indischen Staats- und Rechtstheoretiker seinen Partialethos, den er nicht aufgeben kann, ohne daß der gesellschaftliche Kosmos dadurch in seinem Bestand gefährdet würde (Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 100).”

    4Cf. Hacker 2006: 489–491. This essay was originally published as “Dharma im Hinduismus” in Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft 49 (1965): 93–106. The 2006 translation was done by D. R. Davis, Jr.

    5Hacker 2006: 490. This passage is also mentioned in R. P. Das’ study “Notions of ‘Contagion’ in Classical Indian Medical Texts” (Das 2000: 74–75).

    6Wujastyk states about CS 1.15cd–16ab: “Both the Carakasaṃhitā and Cakrapāṇi refer in this passage to the four goals of life, i.e., they include mokṣa or liberation. This is a prominent passage in the medical literature, but it is also untypical, in fact unique. Elsewhere, the early medical authors always refer to the trivarga or three goals as the norm (Wujastyk 2004: 833).” This is not true for the KS (cf. KS 3.2.10, 8.9.11, 8.9.18 and 9.5.5–6ab). Also passages from other compendia sometimes allude to mokṣa in contexts concerned with the human goals, e.g. CS 1.8.32 and SS 1.25.44. Regarding the development of this concept from trivarga to puruṣārtha cf. Olivelle 2019.

    7CS 1.15cd–17ab. Further passages that stress the importance of health for pursuing the three or four human aims are CS 1.12.13, 1.16.38, KS 3.2.10, 9.5.5–6ab and AHS 1.1.2.

    8Cf. Wujastyk’s translation of the first part of this passage in Wujastyk 2004: 832. He additionally provides a translation of Cakrapāṇidatta’s 11th century commentary: “Therefore health is the primary cause as far as the four goals of life are concerned. It is said that it is impossible for someone who has been caught by a disease to do anything at all about the aims of man… The removal of health by diseases is one and the same thing as not achieving one’s goals.”

    9Such passages are CS 4.8.66 (kīrti instead of kāma), 6.2.1.3 (prīti), KS 8.9.26cd–28ab (sukha), HS 1.1.18–19 (śreyas, sukha and saukhya), as well as AHS 1.1.2 and 6.40.82 (both sukha).

    10See CS 1.8.32 and 6.2.1.3, KS 8.9.26cd–28ab, 9.2.28 and 9.5.64–65ab, HS 1.1.18–19 and 3.2.152, SS 1.2.8, 1.10.8 and 1.25.44 as well as AHS 6.40.82.

    11Cf. Roșu 1978: 260 and Cakrapāṇidatta ad CS 1.11.3. In fact, Cakrapāṇidatta sees the desire for kāma as included in the desire for prāṇa and in the desire for dhana.

    12Some examples of such lists are CS 1.8.18–29, 6.1.4.30–35, BhS 1.5.17–18 and 23–28, 1.8, SS 4.24 and AHS 1.20.20–30.

    13Cf. CS 1.11.37–44. For an annotated translation of the passage see Angermeier forthc. The term adhyaya, frequently translated as “chapter”, actually denotes study units of originally oral educational works. Because of this background I prefer to name the subsections of the medical compendia lessons.

    14CS 1.30.29: sa cādhyetavyo brāhmaṇarājanyavaiśyaiḥ. tatrānugrahārthaṃ prāṇināṃ brāhmaṇaiḥ ārakṣārthaṃ rājanyaiḥ vṛttyarthaṃ vaiśyaiḥ sāmānyato vā dharmārthakāmaparigrahārthaṃ sarvaiḥ […].

    15CS 1.30.29: […] tatra yad adhyātmavidāṃ dharmapathasthānāṃ dharmaprakāśakānāṃ vā mātṛpitṛbhrātṛbandhugurujanasya vā vikārapraśamane prayatnavān bhavati yac cāyurvedoktam adhyātmam anudhyāyati vedayaty anuvidhīyate vā so'sya paro dharmaḥ […].

    16The brāhmī plant is usually associated with Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell, in English known as water hyssop or Indian pennywort.

    17Wujastyk 2004: 831. In note 2 on p. 839 he explains the idea elaborated in Gould 2001: “Gould presents the idea that there are two ‘Magisteria’ or realms of debate and discussion, one for science and one for religion. These two Magisteria do not, and should not be made to, intersect. Religion and science, in Gould’s argument, address entirely different concerns, and there is no need, or strictly no possibility, for them to be in conflict.”

    18The passage starts from CS 6.8.149 and ends with 172. In 155 the meat of carnivores is mentioned as best promoting the increase of body meat because it is intense, hot and light (māṃsenopacitāṅgānāṃ māṃsaṃ māṃsakaraṃ param, tīkṣṇoṣṇalāghavāc chastaṃ viśeṣān mṛgapakṣiṇām).

    19The same suggestion is made in the corresponding AHS lesson in 4.5.6cd–7. Deceiving the patient is also recommended in CS 6.8.150 where the meat of an owl—presented as peacock—is prescribed against consumption.

    20See KS 4.5.10: […] vātādīnāṃ tu dhātūnām anye dhātava āpyāyitā bhavanti bhujyamānaṃ māṃsaṃ māṃsasya śoṇitaṃ śoṇitasyeti, tad adharmabhayād aniṣṭaṃ tadguṇais tu śucibhir āhāraiḥ kṣīṇadhātūn āpyāyayet.

    21AHS 4.7.74. The eulogy on the benefits of alcohol starts in 55 and mentions its effects as an aphrodisiac, its usability as an unleashing drug for warriors, its importance for convivial gatherings, as well as its medical and dietetic applicability. The following section (75–93) describes the ideal circumstances for the consumption of alcohol. While the passage is kept in a quite sensual tone, it stresses the importance of moderate drinking. McHugh 2021: 146–148, contains a translation of the whole passage 75–93.

    22Hilgenberg & Kirfel (1941: 357) translate āśritopāśritahitaṃ as “er ist gut für Sesshafte und Zukömmlinge (it is good for residents and those who come from other places)”. The commentator Aruṇadatta does not explain it. According to the dictionaries the difference between āśrīta and upāśrita is minor. Probably the upa- specifies an indirect recourse to alcohol. Accordingly āśrita could be the drinking person himself (i.e. the patient), while upāśrita could denote the physician, employing alcoholic drinks for dietetic and medical purposes. Cf. also the McHugh’s translation (McHugh 2021: 146).

    23On alcohol in ancient South Asia cf. McHugh 2021; Achaya 1991; Aalto 1963. McHugh has an extensive chapter on “The filth of grain and the pain of drink: morality, vice, and laws” (pp. 188–244).

    24CS 6.24.70 (lesson on the treatment of alcoholism).

    25The two qualities rajas and tamas represent two contrary factors, one agitating or manic, the other obscuring or depressive. As rajas originally denotes atmospheric disturbances like mist or dust, these two qualities—agitation/turmoil and darkness—seem to allude to two supplementary kinds of disruptions of clear sight, which in this simile stand for the clear, unimpaired mind. Cf. also CS 4.5.13–15 where the clear mind (sattva) is compared to the sun unobscured by any obstacles like planets, clouds, dust (rajas), smoke or fog.

    26On this passage AHS 1.1.32–33 (in Butzenberger & Fedorova 31b–33b) cf. Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 105. On Vāgbhaṭa’s religious background see Meulenbeld 1999: 602–618.

    27The commentator Cakrapāṇidatta explains that prakṛti here means death (maraṇa); he explains that it is synonymous with svabhāva and refers to CS 1.30.25 where svabhāva is listed among the synonyms of death.

    28Jādavaji Trikamji 1941 reads tīvrādharmārucer. My emendation is based on Cakrapāṇidatta’s reading and on several manuscripts. See the details in Angermeier 2007: 95, fn. 402.

    29The term adhana could also refer to people who are not entitled to personal property, according to MS 8.416 wives, children and servants.

    30Cf. for example CS 3.8.13, SS 1.2.8 and SS 4.30.4 (people not to be treated with Rasāyana therapy).

    31Ḍalhaṇa explains abhyupagata as someone who came from far away and has been accepted as a guest.

    32According to Ḍalhaṇa, patita are people who have fallen from their prescribed conduct.

    33See SS 1.10.8. According to HS 3.2.152 the cure from fever caused by all three morbific factors (sannipātika) and according to SS 1.25.44 the practice of surgery results in similar rewards.

    34See SS 3.4.38 (daysleep) and 4.24.122 (sex with menstruating women) as well as KS 4.5.10 (meat).

    35See SS 3.1.16 (future embodiment), SS 3.2.37 (twins) and 3.3.26 (body parts).

    36This statement is not in conformity with the models of causes of suffering presented in the CS. Cf. Angermeier forthc.

    37The Kṛtayuga is the first of four world ages into which each world period is divided. The four eras Kṛta-, Tretā-, Dvāpara- and Kaliyuga take their names from the dice game, with kṛta designating the best throw and thus also being assigned to the first age as the perfect one. See Zimmer 1946: 13–16.

    38See CS 3.3.24. Cf. also Angermeier 2007: 45–46 (discussion) and 70–74 (German translation). It has to be noted that the first extant lesson of the KS Śārīrasthāna contains a similar account on the ages of the world, also mentioning that dharma was complete in the Kṛtayuga. Its decrease in the following ages is not described here and the qualities of the human body are reduced by half with each age. See KS 4.1.2.

    39The decay of the environment is expounded in CS 3.3.7.

    40CS 3.3.20. Cf. the translation by Dominik Wujastyk (Wujastyk 2001: 83).

    41On the concept of prajñāparādha cf. Angermeier forthc., section 3.

    42The term janapada in fact denotes political entities like kingdoms or states as well as the people inhabitating these entities. Cf. Chattopadhyaya 2018: 6–9 and 36–39.

    43According to SS 1.34.9 the consequences of distress of the king include the mixture of all social classes, cessation of the activities of dharma and even the destruction of the subjects. SS 1.6.19 states that adharma based on enchantment etc. leads to poisoning of the environment, unfavourable stellar constellations or bad attributes of houses, wives, seats, vehicles, mounts, pearls, jewels and instruments. This, in consequence, brings about various diseases.

    44On this development see van Buitenen 1957; Ingalls 1957; Olivelle 2006: 14–15.

    Auteur

    • Vitus Angermeier

      Independent scholar, he is lecturer at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna. His scholarly discipline is South Asian Studies/Indology and his main research topics deal with āyurveda, Epics and Arthaśāstra.

      Publications

      – 2017 “Untangling Multiple Topographical Systems: Conceptions of Landscapes in Ancient Indian Medicine,” eJournal of Indian Medicine, 9 (2), pp. 39–62. rjh.ub.rug.nl/eJIM/article/view/30233
      – 2020 Regenzeiten, Feuchtgebiete, Körpersäfte: Das Wasser in der klassischen indischen Medizin, Wien, Austrian Academy of Sciences Press (OA version: https://austriaca.at/9783700188261).
      – 2020 “Agni and Soma Revisited: A Primordial Ayurvedic Concept?,” in T. L. Knudsen, J. Schmidt-Madsen & S. Speyer, eds., Body and Cosmos: Studies in Early Indian Medical and Astral Sciences in Honor of Kenneth G. Zysk, Leiden, Brill, pp.15-32.

      vitus.angermeier[at]univie.ac.at

    Précédent Suivant
    Table des matières

    Creative Commons - Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

    Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Creative Commons - Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

    Voir plus de livres
    Rites hindous

    Rites hindous

    Transferts et transformations

    Gérard Colas et Gilles Tarabout (dir.)

    2006

    L’espace du temple I

    L’espace du temple I

    Espaces, itinéraires, médiations

    Jean-Claude Galey (dir.)

    1985

    L’espace du temple II

    L’espace du temple II

    Les sanctuaires dans le royaume

    Jean-Claude Galey (dir.)

    1986

    La dette

    La dette

    Charles Malamoud (dir.)

    1980

    Divins remèdes

    Divins remèdes

    Médecine et religion en Asie du Sud

    Ines G. Županov et Caterina Guenzi (dir.)

    2009

    Circulation et territoire dans le monde indien contemporain

    Circulation et territoire dans le monde indien contemporain

    Véronique Dupont et Frédéric Landy (dir.)

    2010

    Construire les savoirs dans l’action

    Construire les savoirs dans l’action

    Apprentissages et enjeux sociaux en Asie du Sud

    Marie-Claude Mahias (dir.)

    2011

    Politique et religions en Asie du Sud

    Politique et religions en Asie du Sud

    Le sécularisme dans tous ses états ?

    Christophe Jaffrelot et Aminah Mohammad-Arif (dir.)

    2012

    L’Inde des Lumières

    L’Inde des Lumières

    Discours, histoire, savoirs (XVIIe-XIXe siècle)

    Marie Fourcade et Ines G. Županov (dir.)

    2013

    Indianité et créolité à l’île Maurice

    Indianité et créolité à l’île Maurice

    Catherine Servan-Schreiber (dir.)

    2014

    Cosmopolitismes en Asie du Sud

    Cosmopolitismes en Asie du Sud

    Sources, itinéraires, langues (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)

    Corinne Lefèvre, Ines G. Županov et Jorge Flores (dir.)

    2015

    L’Inde et l’Italie

    L’Inde et l’Italie

    Rencontres intellectuelles, politiques et artistiques

    Tiziana Leucci, Claude Markovits et Marie Fourcade (dir.)

    2018

    Voir plus de livres
    1 / 12
    Rites hindous

    Rites hindous

    Transferts et transformations

    Gérard Colas et Gilles Tarabout (dir.)

    2006

    L’espace du temple I

    L’espace du temple I

    Espaces, itinéraires, médiations

    Jean-Claude Galey (dir.)

    1985

    L’espace du temple II

    L’espace du temple II

    Les sanctuaires dans le royaume

    Jean-Claude Galey (dir.)

    1986

    La dette

    La dette

    Charles Malamoud (dir.)

    1980

    Divins remèdes

    Divins remèdes

    Médecine et religion en Asie du Sud

    Ines G. Županov et Caterina Guenzi (dir.)

    2009

    Circulation et territoire dans le monde indien contemporain

    Circulation et territoire dans le monde indien contemporain

    Véronique Dupont et Frédéric Landy (dir.)

    2010

    Construire les savoirs dans l’action

    Construire les savoirs dans l’action

    Apprentissages et enjeux sociaux en Asie du Sud

    Marie-Claude Mahias (dir.)

    2011

    Politique et religions en Asie du Sud

    Politique et religions en Asie du Sud

    Le sécularisme dans tous ses états ?

    Christophe Jaffrelot et Aminah Mohammad-Arif (dir.)

    2012

    L’Inde des Lumières

    L’Inde des Lumières

    Discours, histoire, savoirs (XVIIe-XIXe siècle)

    Marie Fourcade et Ines G. Županov (dir.)

    2013

    Indianité et créolité à l’île Maurice

    Indianité et créolité à l’île Maurice

    Catherine Servan-Schreiber (dir.)

    2014

    Cosmopolitismes en Asie du Sud

    Cosmopolitismes en Asie du Sud

    Sources, itinéraires, langues (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)

    Corinne Lefèvre, Ines G. Županov et Jorge Flores (dir.)

    2015

    L’Inde et l’Italie

    L’Inde et l’Italie

    Rencontres intellectuelles, politiques et artistiques

    Tiziana Leucci, Claude Markovits et Marie Fourcade (dir.)

    2018

    Accès ouvert

    Accès ouvert freemium

    ePub

    PDF

    PDF du chapitre

    Suggérer l’acquisition à votre bibliothèque

    Acheter

    Édition imprimée

    • amazon.fr
    • decitre.fr
    • mollat.com
    • leslibraires.fr
    • placedeslibraires.fr
    • lcdpu.fr
    ePub / PDF

    1The works of this genre are comparable to the Arthaśāstra and the Kāmasūtra in that they were completed around the same time under similar societal circumstances.

    2The Carakasaṃhitā, focussing on internal medicine, and the Suśrutasaṃhitā, with an emphasis on surgery, both roughly date from the period between 250 BC and 150 AD. The Bhelasaṃhitā, originating around the same time, belongs to the same school as the CS and has a similar structure. Transmitted in a single manuscript, it is in a worse state than the other compendia. The Kāśyapasaṃhitā, transmitted in two fragmentary manuscripts, is focused on birth and paediatrics and may have been composed at the same time as the CS. The Hārītasaṃhitā is also a work on internal medicine but differs from the CS and the BhS in terms of structure and presentation of the content. All of them were revised and partially enhanced in the centuries that followed. A considerably younger compendium ascribed to Vāgbhaṭa, the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā (AHS), came into existence around 700 AD and is heavily dependent on the two popular foundational works CS and SS. Where advisable and available, I have also consulted the extant commentaries. For further information on the CS, the SS and the AHS, their contents, authors, and dates cf. Meulenbeld 1999, concerning the BhS, KS and HS see Meulenbeld 2000, 13–60. For a synopsis of their section names cf. table 2 in section 7. The medical parts of the Bower Mansucript contain no relevant material.

    3My translation of: “Auf die menschliche Gesellschaft übertragen faßt „dharma“ den Zusammenhalt jeglicher Art von Sozietät zusammen und beinhaltet insofern die Maximen und Normen der Lebensführung des einzelnen in der Gemeinschaft. Jede Kaste, jeder Berufsstand hat zudem nach dem Verständnis der indischen Staats- und Rechtstheoretiker seinen Partialethos, den er nicht aufgeben kann, ohne daß der gesellschaftliche Kosmos dadurch in seinem Bestand gefährdet würde (Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 100).”

    4Cf. Hacker 2006: 489–491. This essay was originally published as “Dharma im Hinduismus” in Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft 49 (1965): 93–106. The 2006 translation was done by D. R. Davis, Jr.

    5Hacker 2006: 490. This passage is also mentioned in R. P. Das’ study “Notions of ‘Contagion’ in Classical Indian Medical Texts” (Das 2000: 74–75).

    6Wujastyk states about CS 1.15cd–16ab: “Both the Carakasaṃhitā and Cakrapāṇi refer in this passage to the four goals of life, i.e., they include mokṣa or liberation. This is a prominent passage in the medical literature, but it is also untypical, in fact unique. Elsewhere, the early medical authors always refer to the trivarga or three goals as the norm (Wujastyk 2004: 833).” This is not true for the KS (cf. KS 3.2.10, 8.9.11, 8.9.18 and 9.5.5–6ab). Also passages from other compendia sometimes allude to mokṣa in contexts concerned with the human goals, e.g. CS 1.8.32 and SS 1.25.44. Regarding the development of this concept from trivarga to puruṣārtha cf. Olivelle 2019.

    7CS 1.15cd–17ab. Further passages that stress the importance of health for pursuing the three or four human aims are CS 1.12.13, 1.16.38, KS 3.2.10, 9.5.5–6ab and AHS 1.1.2.

    8Cf. Wujastyk’s translation of the first part of this passage in Wujastyk 2004: 832. He additionally provides a translation of Cakrapāṇidatta’s 11th century commentary: “Therefore health is the primary cause as far as the four goals of life are concerned. It is said that it is impossible for someone who has been caught by a disease to do anything at all about the aims of man… The removal of health by diseases is one and the same thing as not achieving one’s goals.”

    9Such passages are CS 4.8.66 (kīrti instead of kāma), 6.2.1.3 (prīti), KS 8.9.26cd–28ab (sukha), HS 1.1.18–19 (śreyas, sukha and saukhya), as well as AHS 1.1.2 and 6.40.82 (both sukha).

    10See CS 1.8.32 and 6.2.1.3, KS 8.9.26cd–28ab, 9.2.28 and 9.5.64–65ab, HS 1.1.18–19 and 3.2.152, SS 1.2.8, 1.10.8 and 1.25.44 as well as AHS 6.40.82.

    11Cf. Roșu 1978: 260 and Cakrapāṇidatta ad CS 1.11.3. In fact, Cakrapāṇidatta sees the desire for kāma as included in the desire for prāṇa and in the desire for dhana.

    12Some examples of such lists are CS 1.8.18–29, 6.1.4.30–35, BhS 1.5.17–18 and 23–28, 1.8, SS 4.24 and AHS 1.20.20–30.

    13Cf. CS 1.11.37–44. For an annotated translation of the passage see Angermeier forthc. The term adhyaya, frequently translated as “chapter”, actually denotes study units of originally oral educational works. Because of this background I prefer to name the subsections of the medical compendia lessons.

    14CS 1.30.29: sa cādhyetavyo brāhmaṇarājanyavaiśyaiḥ. tatrānugrahārthaṃ prāṇināṃ brāhmaṇaiḥ ārakṣārthaṃ rājanyaiḥ vṛttyarthaṃ vaiśyaiḥ sāmānyato vā dharmārthakāmaparigrahārthaṃ sarvaiḥ […].

    15CS 1.30.29: […] tatra yad adhyātmavidāṃ dharmapathasthānāṃ dharmaprakāśakānāṃ vā mātṛpitṛbhrātṛbandhugurujanasya vā vikārapraśamane prayatnavān bhavati yac cāyurvedoktam adhyātmam anudhyāyati vedayaty anuvidhīyate vā so'sya paro dharmaḥ […].

    16The brāhmī plant is usually associated with Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell, in English known as water hyssop or Indian pennywort.

    17Wujastyk 2004: 831. In note 2 on p. 839 he explains the idea elaborated in Gould 2001: “Gould presents the idea that there are two ‘Magisteria’ or realms of debate and discussion, one for science and one for religion. These two Magisteria do not, and should not be made to, intersect. Religion and science, in Gould’s argument, address entirely different concerns, and there is no need, or strictly no possibility, for them to be in conflict.”

    18The passage starts from CS 6.8.149 and ends with 172. In 155 the meat of carnivores is mentioned as best promoting the increase of body meat because it is intense, hot and light (māṃsenopacitāṅgānāṃ māṃsaṃ māṃsakaraṃ param, tīkṣṇoṣṇalāghavāc chastaṃ viśeṣān mṛgapakṣiṇām).

    19The same suggestion is made in the corresponding AHS lesson in 4.5.6cd–7. Deceiving the patient is also recommended in CS 6.8.150 where the meat of an owl—presented as peacock—is prescribed against consumption.

    20See KS 4.5.10: […] vātādīnāṃ tu dhātūnām anye dhātava āpyāyitā bhavanti bhujyamānaṃ māṃsaṃ māṃsasya śoṇitaṃ śoṇitasyeti, tad adharmabhayād aniṣṭaṃ tadguṇais tu śucibhir āhāraiḥ kṣīṇadhātūn āpyāyayet.

    21AHS 4.7.74. The eulogy on the benefits of alcohol starts in 55 and mentions its effects as an aphrodisiac, its usability as an unleashing drug for warriors, its importance for convivial gatherings, as well as its medical and dietetic applicability. The following section (75–93) describes the ideal circumstances for the consumption of alcohol. While the passage is kept in a quite sensual tone, it stresses the importance of moderate drinking. McHugh 2021: 146–148, contains a translation of the whole passage 75–93.

    22Hilgenberg & Kirfel (1941: 357) translate āśritopāśritahitaṃ as “er ist gut für Sesshafte und Zukömmlinge (it is good for residents and those who come from other places)”. The commentator Aruṇadatta does not explain it. According to the dictionaries the difference between āśrīta and upāśrita is minor. Probably the upa- specifies an indirect recourse to alcohol. Accordingly āśrita could be the drinking person himself (i.e. the patient), while upāśrita could denote the physician, employing alcoholic drinks for dietetic and medical purposes. Cf. also the McHugh’s translation (McHugh 2021: 146).

    23On alcohol in ancient South Asia cf. McHugh 2021; Achaya 1991; Aalto 1963. McHugh has an extensive chapter on “The filth of grain and the pain of drink: morality, vice, and laws” (pp. 188–244).

    24CS 6.24.70 (lesson on the treatment of alcoholism).

    25The two qualities rajas and tamas represent two contrary factors, one agitating or manic, the other obscuring or depressive. As rajas originally denotes atmospheric disturbances like mist or dust, these two qualities—agitation/turmoil and darkness—seem to allude to two supplementary kinds of disruptions of clear sight, which in this simile stand for the clear, unimpaired mind. Cf. also CS 4.5.13–15 where the clear mind (sattva) is compared to the sun unobscured by any obstacles like planets, clouds, dust (rajas), smoke or fog.

    26On this passage AHS 1.1.32–33 (in Butzenberger & Fedorova 31b–33b) cf. Butzenberger & Fedorova 1989: 105. On Vāgbhaṭa’s religious background see Meulenbeld 1999: 602–618.

    27The commentator Cakrapāṇidatta explains that prakṛti here means death (maraṇa); he explains that it is synonymous with svabhāva and refers to CS 1.30.25 where svabhāva is listed among the synonyms of death.

    28Jādavaji Trikamji 1941 reads tīvrādharmārucer. My emendation is based on Cakrapāṇidatta’s reading and on several manuscripts. See the details in Angermeier 2007: 95, fn. 402.

    29The term adhana could also refer to people who are not entitled to personal property, according to MS 8.416 wives, children and servants.

    30Cf. for example CS 3.8.13, SS 1.2.8 and SS 4.30.4 (people not to be treated with Rasāyana therapy).

    31Ḍalhaṇa explains abhyupagata as someone who came from far away and has been accepted as a guest.

    32According to Ḍalhaṇa, patita are people who have fallen from their prescribed conduct.

    33See SS 1.10.8. According to HS 3.2.152 the cure from fever caused by all three morbific factors (sannipātika) and according to SS 1.25.44 the practice of surgery results in similar rewards.

    34See SS 3.4.38 (daysleep) and 4.24.122 (sex with menstruating women) as well as KS 4.5.10 (meat).

    35See SS 3.1.16 (future embodiment), SS 3.2.37 (twins) and 3.3.26 (body parts).

    36This statement is not in conformity with the models of causes of suffering presented in the CS. Cf. Angermeier forthc.

    37The Kṛtayuga is the first of four world ages into which each world period is divided. The four eras Kṛta-, Tretā-, Dvāpara- and Kaliyuga take their names from the dice game, with kṛta designating the best throw and thus also being assigned to the first age as the perfect one. See Zimmer 1946: 13–16.

    38See CS 3.3.24. Cf. also Angermeier 2007: 45–46 (discussion) and 70–74 (German translation). It has to be noted that the first extant lesson of the KS Śārīrasthāna contains a similar account on the ages of the world, also mentioning that dharma was complete in the Kṛtayuga. Its decrease in the following ages is not described here and the qualities of the human body are reduced by half with each age. See KS 4.1.2.

    39The decay of the environment is expounded in CS 3.3.7.

    40CS 3.3.20. Cf. the translation by Dominik Wujastyk (Wujastyk 2001: 83).

    41On the concept of prajñāparādha cf. Angermeier forthc., section 3.

    42The term janapada in fact denotes political entities like kingdoms or states as well as the people inhabitating these entities. Cf. Chattopadhyaya 2018: 6–9 and 36–39.

    43According to SS 1.34.9 the consequences of distress of the king include the mixture of all social classes, cessation of the activities of dharma and even the destruction of the subjects. SS 1.6.19 states that adharma based on enchantment etc. leads to poisoning of the environment, unfavourable stellar constellations or bad attributes of houses, wives, seats, vehicles, mounts, pearls, jewels and instruments. This, in consequence, brings about various diseases.

    44On this development see van Buitenen 1957; Ingalls 1957; Olivelle 2006: 14–15.

    Visages du dharma

    X Facebook Email

    Visages du dharma

    Ce livre est diffusé en accès ouvert freemium. L’accès à la lecture en ligne est disponible. L’accès aux versions PDF et ePub est réservé aux bibliothèques l’ayant acquis. Vous pouvez vous connecter à votre bibliothèque à l’adresse suivante : https://freemium.openedition.org/oebooks

    Suggérer l’acquisition à votre bibliothèque Acheter ce livre aux formats PDF et ePub

    Si vous avez des questions, vous pouvez nous écrire à access[at]openedition.org

    Visages du dharma

    Vérifiez si votre bibliothèque a déjà acquis ce livre : authentifiez-vous à OpenEdition Freemium for Books.

    Vous pouvez suggérer à votre bibliothèque d’acquérir un ou plusieurs livres publiés sur OpenEdition Books. N’hésitez pas à lui indiquer nos coordonnées : access[at]openedition.org

    Vous pouvez également nous indiquer, à l’aide du formulaire suivant, les coordonnées de votre bibliothèque afin que nous la contactions pour lui suggérer l’achat de ce livre. Les champs suivis de (*) sont obligatoires.

    Veuillez, s’il vous plaît, remplir tous les champs.

    La syntaxe de l’email est incorrecte.

    Référence numérique du chapitre

    Format

    Angermeier, V. (2023). Dharma and the Physicians. Ethic Reflections in Early Ayurvedic Literature. In S. D’Intino & C. Barois (éds.), Visages du dharma. Paris: Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. https://doi.org/10.4000/1583j
    Angermeier, Vitus. « Dharma and the Physicians. Ethic Reflections in Early Ayurvedic Literature ». In Visages Du Dharma, édité par Silvia D’Intino et Christèle Barois. Paris: Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2023. doi:10.4000/1583j.
    Angermeier, Vitus. « Dharma and the Physicians. Ethic Reflections in Early Ayurvedic Literature ». Visages Du Dharma, édité par Silvia D’Intino et Christèle Barois, Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4000/1583j.

    Référence numérique du livre

    Format

    D’Intino, S., & Barois, C. (éds.). (2023). Visages du dharma. Paris: Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. https://doi.org/10.4000/1583s
    D’Intino, Silvia, et Christèle Barois, éd. Visages du dharma. Paris: Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2023. doi:10.4000/1583s.
    D’Intino, Silvia, et Christèle Barois, éditeurs. Visages du dharma. Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4000/1583s.
    Compatible avec Zotero Zotero

    1 / 3

    Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales

    Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales

    • Plan du site
    • Se connecter

    Suivez-nous

    • Flux RSS

    URL : http://editions.ehess.fr

    Email : editions@ehess.fr

    Adresse :

    Éditions de l’EHESS

    105 boulevard Raspail

    75006

    Paris

    France

    OpenEdition
    • Candidater à OpenEdition Books
    • Connaître le programme OpenEdition Freemium
    • Commander des livres
    • S’abonner à la lettre d’OpenEdition
    • CGU d’OpenEdition Books
    • Accessibilité : partiellement conforme
    • Données personnelles
    • Gestion des cookies
    • Système de signalement