Charaka Samhita

01From Indra to Agnivesha

The first chapter opens on the slopes of the Himalaya. Disease had begun to trouble men and to block them from tapas, study and the aims of life, and the great rishis, Angira, Jamadagni, Vasishtha, Kashyapa, Bhrigu, Atreya and many more, gathered to ask what could be done. Bharadvaja volunteered to go to Indra, who had learnt Ayurveda from the Ashvins; they had it from Daksha Prajapati, and Daksha from Brahma. He brought it back and taught the rishis. Atreya Punarvasu taught it to six disciples, Agnivesha, Bhela, Jatukarna, Parashara, Harita and Ksharapani, each of whom wrote a tantra. Agnivesha’s was judged the best.

02Charaka and Dridhabala

Agnivesha’s tantra survives only as Charaka revised it, and every chapter ends with a colophon saying so: composed by Agnivesha, redacted by Charaka. Tradition honours Charaka as an amsha of Shesha, and a well-known verse makes one sage the healer of mind, speech and body through yoga, grammar and medicine, joining him with Patanjali. A Chinese Buddhist text names a physician Charaka at the court of Kanishka, and scholars commonly place the redaction between the second century BCE and the second century CE. Later a third of the book was lost. Dridhabala of Panchanada, the land of five rivers, restored it around the fourth or fifth century, writing seventeen chapters of the Chikitsasthana and all of the Kalpa and Siddhi sthanas.

03Eight sthanas, 120 chapters

The Samhita has eight sthanas and 120 chapters. The Sutrasthana, the foundation, has thirty chapters arranged in seven tetrads (chatushkas) on medicines, health, diet, the physician and so on, with two summing-up chapters. Then come Nidana on causes, Vimana on measure and method, Sharira on the body, Indriya on prognosis, Chikitsa on treatment, Kalpa on pharmacy and Siddhi on the cleansing therapies. Most chapters open as a dialogue, with Agnivesha asking and Atreya Punarvasu answering, and many end with a verse summary. Prose and verse alternate throughout, and the last chapter of the Sutrasthana sets out the ten seats of life and what an Ayurvedic text must contain.

04What Ayurveda is for

Health is the best root of dharma, artha, kama and moksha, says the first chapter, and disease steals it. Ayurveda is defined as the knowledge in which the beneficial and harmful life, the happy and unhappy life, and what helps or hurts it, and its measure, are taught. Life itself is the union of body, senses, mind and atman. Mind, atman and body are the tripod on which the living world stands. The thirtieth chapter states the purpose of the science in one line that every Ayurveda student learns first: to protect the health of the healthy, and to relieve the disorder of the sick. Prevention comes first, cure second.

05Three doshas, seven dhatus

The body’s doshas are vata, pitta and kapha; the mind’s are rajas and tamas. Vata moves, pitta transforms, kapha binds and holds. In balance they sustain the body, out of balance they spoil the seven dhatus, rasa, rakta, mamsa, meda, asthi, majja and shukra, and the malas, the waste products. Behind digestion stands agni, the fire that turns food into tissue; Charaka counts thirteen kinds of it. A person’s prakriti, their inborn constitution, is fixed at conception by the dominant dosha, and the physician must know it before giving any medicine. Ojas, the finest part of all the dhatus, is what keeps a person alive and strong.

06Food, sleep and the seasons

Food, sleep and a regulated life (brahmacharya) are the three upastambhas, the props that hold life up. The fifth chapter lays out the day: chewing a twig of neem or khadira to clean the teeth, collyrium for the eyes, oil in the nose, oiling the body, bathing, clean clothes. The sixth gives the regimen for each of the six seasons. The seventh lists thirteen natural urges, among them hunger, thirst, sleep, sneezing and yawning, that must never be held back. In the Vimanasthana, how one eats matters as much as what: the nature of the food, its preparation, combination, quantity, place, time, the rules of eating and the eater himself are the eight factors to weigh.

07Examining and reasoning

Knowledge comes from three sources, says Charaka: the word of the trustworthy (aptopadesha), direct perception and inference, to which he adds yukti, reasoning from many factors together. The patient is examined on ten counts: prakriti, the disorder, the quality of the tissues, build, measure, what suits him, mental strength, digestive power, capacity for exercise and age. The eighth chapter of the Vimanasthana teaches the young physician how to debate in an assembly, with forty-four technical terms of argument. The third chapter of the same section describes epidemics that ruin whole regions through corrupted air, water, land and season, and traces them back to adharma, beginning with the rulers.

08Herbs, panchakarma, rasayana

The fourth chapter sorts five hundred plants into fifty groups of ten by action: those that enliven, those that nourish, those that reduce fat, those that heal fractures, those that calm thirst, and so on. Every substance is judged by its rasa (taste), guna (qualities), virya (potency), vipaka (post-digestive effect) and prabhava (special power). For deep disorders the body is first oiled and sweated, then cleansed by the five therapies of panchakarma: vamana, virechana, the two kinds of medicated enema, and nasya. The Chikitsasthana opens with rasayana, the science of rejuvenation, and there gives the recipe the Ashvins made for the aged rishi Chyavana, known today as Chyavanaprasha.

09The physician’s charge

Treatment has four feet, says the ninth chapter: the physician, the medicine, the attendant and the patient, and the physician is first among them. In the Vimanasthana the teacher gives the new student his charge before the sacred fire: work day and night for the relief of the sick with all your heart, never harm a patient even to save your own life, do not covet another’s wife or wealth, speak gently, and keep what you see in a patient’s house to yourself. Do not treat those the king has forbidden or those who hate the king. Lines from the Charaka Samhita are inscribed on the old building of Medical College, Kolkata.

10Commentaries and reach

Jejjata wrote an early commentary, and in the eleventh century Chakrapanidatta of Bengal wrote the Ayurveda Dipika, still the one every student reads; Gangadhara Kaviratna’s Jalpakalpataru followed in the nineteenth. Under the Abbasid caliphs the Samhita was put into Persian and then Arabic, and Ibn al-Nadim’s Fihrist of 987 lists it. Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari drew on Charaka in his Firdaus al-Hikma around 850, and al-Biruni quoted him in the eleventh century. In 1949 the Gulabkunverba Society of Jamnagar published the full text with Hindi, Gujarati and English translations. The Samhita remains the core of the BAMS course in Ayurveda across India.

What it contains

1. 1
   Sutrasthana (30 chapters)

   The principles, in seven tetrads and two summary chapters: the descent of Ayurveda, the groups of herbs, daily and seasonal regimen, the urges, diet, the physician and the four feet of treatment. It closes with the ten seats of life and the purpose of the science.

2. 2
   Nidanasthana (8)

   The causes, early signs, symptoms, what aggravates or relieves, and course of eight major diseases. Fever (jvara) comes first, then bleeding disorders, abdominal lumps, prameha (urinary disorders including madhumeha), skin disease, wasting, insanity and epilepsy.

3. 3
   Vimanasthana (8)

   Measures and methods: the specific qualities of tastes and foods, the eight factors of diet, epidemics that destroy regions, the threefold and tenfold examination, and the training of the physician with the rules of debate.

4. 4
   Sharirasthana (8)

   The atman and the body, how a person comes to be, conception and the growth of the embryo month by month. It counts the parts of the body and ends with care in pregnancy, childbirth and the newborn.

5. 5
   Indriyasthana (12)

   Arishta, the signs that foretell recovery or death: changes in colour, voice, smell, the senses, dreams and behaviour. A physician who knows them will not take on a case that cannot be saved.

6. 6
   Chikitsasthana (30)

   Treatment, beginning with rasayana (including Chyavanaprasha) and vajikarana. Then the therapy of each disease in turn: fevers, bleeding disorders, diabetes, skin disease, consumption, insanity, cough, asthma, diarrhoea, poisoning and many more. Seventeen of its chapters are Dridhabala’s.

7. 7
   Kalpasthana (12)

   Pharmacy of the cleansing drugs: the emetic fruit madanaphala and its preparations, then the purgatives such as trivrit. It shows how one herb can be made into many forms for different patients and seasons.

8. 8
   Siddhisthana (12)

   The successful use of panchakarma: who should and should not receive each therapy, the enemas and their formulas, and how to manage complications. It ends with the qualities of the Samhita itself and Dridhabala’s note on its completion.

Famous verses

धर्मार्थकाममोक्षाणामारोग्यं मूलमुत्तमम्। रोगास्तस्यापहर्तारः श्रेयसो जीवितस्य च॥

Health is the best root of dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Diseases rob it, and with it all that is good, and life itself.Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 1.15–16

हिताहितं सुखं दुःखमायुस्तस्य हिताहितम्। मानं च तच्च यत्रोक्तमायुर्वेदः स उच्यते॥

That in which the beneficial and harmful life, the happy and unhappy life, what is good and bad for it, and its measure are taught, is called Ayurveda.Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 1.41

सत्त्वमात्मा शरीरं च त्रयमेतत्त्रिदण्डवत्। लोकस्तिष्ठति संयोगात्तत्र सर्वं प्रतिष्ठितम्॥

Mind, atman and body: these three stand together like a tripod. The living world rests on their union, and on it everything is established.Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 1.46

वायुः पित्तं कफश्चोक्तः शारीरो दोषसङ्ग्रहः। मानसः पुनरुद्दिष्टो रजश्च तम एव च॥

Vata, pitta and kapha are the doshas of the body; rajas and tamas are named as the doshas of the mind.Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 1.57

प्रयोजनं चास्य स्वस्थस्य स्वास्थ्यरक्षणमातुरस्य विकारप्रशमनं च

Its purpose is to protect the health of the healthy and to relieve the disorder of the sick.Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 30.26