Английская Википедия:Bhela Samhita

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Шаблон:Infobox book Bhela Samhita (IAST: Bhela-saṃhitā, "Compendium of Bhela") is a Sanskrit-language medical text from ancient India. It is known from an incomplete c. 1650 CE manuscript kept at the Sarasvati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, and a c. 9th century fragment found at Tuyoq. Quotations in other works suggest that an older version of the text, possibly composed during 400-750 CE, existed.

Much of the text is in form of a dialogue between sage Atreya and his pupil Bhela, the author of the text. It shows many similarities with the Charaka Samhita, another text of the Atreya school, but it also shows some similarities with the Sushruta Samhita of the Dhanavantri school.

Authorship

The text is primarily in form of a dialogue between the sage AtreyaШаблон:Efn and his pupil Bhela (also called Bheḍa). However, several other people also talk to Atreya in the text, including:Шаблон:Sfn

  • the royal sage Nagnajit, who asks Atreya questions about detecting poison in food
  • Gurdalu Bhekin, who asks Atreya about medical topography
  • Sushrotar Medhavin, who describes the treatment of the dosha-related disorders
  • Several sages (including Khandakapya and Maitreya) talk to Atreya on the topic of tastes

In the text, the dialogue between Nagnajit and Atreya takes place during Atreya's visit to Gandhara.Шаблон:Sfn Based on the text's mention of Gandhara, some scholars theorize that Bhela was from Gandhara. However, R.S. Singh theorizes that Bhela was from western India, based on an analysis of vegetables used for preparing medicines mentioned in the text.Шаблон:Sfn

Date

Multiple sources, including the Thanjavur version of the Bhela Samhita mention Bhela as a pupil of the ancient sage Atreya. Plus, Bhela is mentioned in ancient texts such as the Bower Manuscript. This suggests that Bhela was regarded as a medical authority in the ancient period.Шаблон:Sfn

Modern scholars date the Thanjavur manuscript to c. 1650, and the Bhela Samhita version represented by this manuscript was probably completed in the 7th century CE or later, as suggested by internal evidences.Шаблон:Sfn Unlike the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, it has not been revised by later authors.Шаблон:Sfn

Tisata's Chikitsa-kalika (10th century) contains a recipe attributed to Bhela; this recipe is very similar to the recipe described in the Thanjavur manuscript, although the wording is somewhat different. This suggest that the Bhela Samhita text represented by the Thanjavur manuscript was not very different from the one known to Tisata in the 10th century. The Thanjavur version contains several quotes attributed to Bhela in Jvara-samuchchaya, whose oldest manuscript dates to 924 CE.Шаблон:Sfn

Sodhala's Gada-nigraha (c. 1200 CE) describes the formula for a medicine called dhanvantara-ghrta, attributing it to Bhela; the Thanjavur manuscript refers to this medicine twice, but does not provide the actual formula. This suggests that a more complete version of Bhela Samhita existed around 1200 CE.Шаблон:Sfn

An earlier form of the text probably developed sometime during 400-750 CE. The Bhela Samhita refers to several practices that originated in the Gupta period, such as chanda-karman and the worship of Shiva on a cremation ground.Шаблон:Sfn The original Bhela Samhita was not identical with the Thanjavur text, as suggested by several quotations. For example, on the topic of applying enema to children, the Kaashyapa-samhita (possibly c. 7th centuryШаблон:Sfn) attributes an opinion to Bhela which disagrees with the Thanjavur text.Шаблон:Sfn

Bhela's text is probably not much earlier than the Sushruta Samhita.Шаблон:Sfn While the Charaka Samhita refers to the Bhela Samhita,Шаблон:Sfn the Thanjavur version was probably composed after Dṛḍhabala redacted the present-day version of Charaka Samhita.Шаблон:Sfn

The Bower Manuscript attributes three gruels to Bhela. Eleven more prescriptions mentioned in the Bower Manuscript also appear in the Thanjavur manuscript of Bhela Samhita, although not attributed to Bhela; these may have derived from earlier works that are now lost.Шаблон:Sfn

Contents

Bhela Samhita is a medical treatise that primarily deals with internal medicine (kaya-chikitsa). The text mainly consists of shloka verses in anuṣṭubh metre, and only the Sharira-sthana part contains prose passages.Шаблон:Sfn

The Sutra-sthana section of the text lists its contents as follows:Шаблон:Sfn

Section (sthana) Number of chapters Chapters surviving (partial or complete) in the Thanjavur manuscript
Sutra-sthana 30 4-23, 25-28
Nidana-sthana 8 2-8
Vimana-sthana 8 1, 3-6
Sharira-sthana 8 2-8
Indriya-sthana 12 1-12
Chikitsa-sthana 30 1-28
Kalpa-sthana 12 1, 3-9
Siddhi-sthana 12 1-2, 4-8

Some features of the text include:Шаблон:Sfn

  • It states that the main task of a physician (kaya-chikitsaka) is to treat the disoders of the "digestive fire" (kaya-agni), which is located in the abdomen, and whose size depends on the body size of the animalШаблон:Sfn
  • Its list of internal and external organs differs slightly from the Charaka Samhita, and it names the rasa (nutritive fluid) as the most important constituent of the body.Шаблон:Sfn Its description of the heart is similar to that of the Sushruta Samhita,Шаблон:Sfn and it states that according to Parashara, the heart is the first part of the embryo to develop.Шаблон:Sfn It also discusses other concepts in physiology, such as 8 types of sweat.Шаблон:Sfn
  • It contains general advice regarding diet. For example, it describes 12 types of wholesome food articles; advises people against drinking water before or during a meal; and advises against eating a fish called chilichima in combination with milk.Шаблон:Sfn
  • It rejects the claim that supernatural beings cause epilepsy, and instead states that an epilepsy attack is caused when one or more doshas obstruct the veins leading from the heart to the mind.Шаблон:Sfn
  • It mentions spirit possession (bhutonmada) while discussing insanity, but does not give much attention to the topic. It states that the physicians should focus on prescribing drugs, and the religious treatment should be left to exorcists (bhuta-vaidya or bhuta-chikitsaka).Шаблон:Sfn

Comparison with the Charaka Samhita

The Charaka Samhita refers to Bhela Samhita,Шаблон:Sfn and the two texts are similar in many ways:Шаблон:Sfn

  • They agree on several topics, suggesting that they both belong to the Atreya school.Шаблон:Sfn
  • The name of the sections (sthanas) and the number of chapters in each section is exactly same.Шаблон:Sfn
  • Several chapters in the two texts have same or similar names.Шаблон:Sfn
  • The chapters in both texts begin in same way.Шаблон:Sfn
  • Both texts (as well as the Sushruta Samhita) feature discussions among sages. For example:Шаблон:Sfn
    • Both texts feature a discussion between sages on the topic of tastes, which takes place in the Chaitra-ratha forest. In both cases, Atreya rejects seven different opinions and expresses what he calls the correct view. Unlike the Bhela-sahita, the Charaka Samhita attributes these seven opinions to particular persons.Шаблон:Sfn
    • Both texts feature a discussion on which part of the embryo develops first: the views expressed in the Bhela-sahita and the Charaka Samhita are very similar, and disagree with the view of the Sushruta Samhita.Шаблон:Sfn

However, the Bhela Samhita also differs from the Charaka Samhita in several ways:

  • It is more concise and uses simpler language than the Charaka Samhita.Шаблон:Sfn
  • Its chapters end differently, with the phrase ity āha bhagavān Ātreyaḥ.Шаблон:Sfn
  • While some of the content in the two texts is similar, there are substantial differences. For example, the Vimana-sthana sections of the two texts differs considerably.Шаблон:Sfn
  • It contains considerable similarities with the Dhanavantri school represented by the Sushruta Samhita.Шаблон:Sfn

Manuscripts

Only one pre-modern manuscript of Bhela Samhita with substantial content is known. It is kept at the Sarasvati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, and several copies of this manuscripts have been made,Шаблон:Sfn such as the one at the India Office Library.Шаблон:Sfn The Thanjavur manuscript is missing several chapters or portions of chapters, and the surviving chapters are not arranged in the proper order. It has several scribal errors, and the Sanskrit text is often grammatically incorrect. Several other copies of this manuscript have been prepared.Шаблон:Sfn

A fragment of Bhela Samhita survives as one page from a paper manuscript found at Tuyoq, dated to c. 9th century. It was discovered by Indologist Heinrich Lüders among a collection of manuscripts brought to Europe by archaeologist Albert von Le Coq.Шаблон:Sfn It contains parts of the Nidana-sthana Chapter 1 and the Vimana-sthana chapter 1.Шаблон:Sfn

The surviving text known from the Thanjavur manuscript appears to be different from the original text that must have once existed.Шаблон:Sfn This can be inferred from the fact that later authors often quote Bhela, but only a few of these quotations are present (some partially) in the Thanjavur manuscript text.Шаблон:Sfn

According to Lüders the Tuyoq fragment represents a more original version of the text. The Nidana-sthana section of both the Bhela Samhita and the Charaka Samhita discuss eight major diseases, seven of which are same. The Thanjavur manuscript of Bhela Samhita discusses the kāsa disease instead of the 'rakta-pitta disease discussed in the Charaka Samhita. However, the Tuyoq fragment discusses rakta-pitta instead of kāsa.Шаблон:Sfn

Critical editions

Several editions of the text have been published, all based on the Thanjavur manuscript:

  • Edited by Mahamahopadhyaya Ananta-krishna Shastri and Asutosh Mookerjee; published by the University of Calcutta (1921). Shastri was a scholar of Sanskrit, but not of Ayurveda. He corrected some grammatical mistakes in the original text, but omitted some portions of the manuscript.Шаблон:Sfn
  • Edited by Vaidya Girija-dayal Shukla; published by the Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi (1959). This edition was apparently based on the Calcutta edition, and not the original manuscript.Шаблон:Sfn
  • Edited by Vaidya Visharada V.S. Venkata-subramanya Sastry and Vaidya Visharada C. Rajarajeswara Sarma; published by the Literary Research Unit of the Sarasvati Mahal Library / Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (1977). This critical edition is based on a fresh study of the manuscript, and corrects several mistakes in the earlier editions.Шаблон:Sfn
  • Edited by Priyavrat Sharma with English translation and commentary by K.H. Krishnamurthy published by Chaukhambha Visvabharati (2000)

Legacy

A number of historical Indian texts on medicine quote from or refer to the Bhela Samhita, including the text of the Bower Manuscript and the Charaka Samhita. Bhela Samhita is one of the sources for the Persian-language text Ma'din al-Shifa (1512), and Ibn Sina may have also been aware of it. The Tibetan tradition refers to Bhela as a medical authority by the name Gzins-can.Шаблон:Sfn

Notes

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References

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Bibliography

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External links

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