Bhela Samhita (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Bhela-saṃhitā, "Compendium of Bhela") is a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

-language medical text from ancient India. It is known from an incomplete c. 1650 CE manuscript kept at the

Sarasvati Mahal Library Saraswathi Mahal Library, also called Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji's Saraswathi Mahal Library is a library located in Thanjavur (Tanjore), Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the oldest libraries in Asia established during 16th century by Nayakar kin ...

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

, and a c. 9th century fragment found at

Tuyoq Tuyoq or Tuyugou or Tuyuk () is an ancient oasis-village in the Taklamakan desert, 70 km east of Turpan in Shanshan County in a lush valley cutting into the Flaming Mountains, with a well preserved Uyghur people, Uyghur orientation, and few ...

. 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 Atreya (आत्रेय) Rishi, or Atreya Punarvasu, was a descendant of Atri, one of the great Hindu sages (rishis) whose accomplishments are detailed in the Puranas. Sage Atreya was a renowned scholar of Ayurveda and six schools of early Ayu ...

and his pupil Bhela, the author of the text. It shows many similarities with the ''

Charaka Samhita The ''Charaka Samhita'' (, “Compendium of ''Charaka''”) is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine). Along with the ''Sushruta Samhita'', it is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancien ...

'', another text of the Atreya school, but it also shows some similarities with the ''

Sushruta Samhita The ''Sushruta Samhita'' (सुश्रुतसंहिता, IAST: ''Suśrutasaṃhitā'', literally "Suśruta's Compendium") is an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery, and one of the most important such treatises on this subj ...

'' of the Dhanavantri school.

Authorship

The text is primarily in form of a dialogue between the sage

and his pupil Bhela (also called Bheḍa). However, several other people also talk to Atreya in the text, including: * 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 Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

. 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.

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 The Bower Manuscript is a collection of seven fragmentary Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. treatises found buried in a Buddhist memorial stupa near Kucha, northwestern China. Written in early Gupta script (late Brahmi script) on birch bark, it is vario ...

. This suggests that Bhela was regarded as a medical authority in the ancient period. 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. Unlike the ''Charaka Samhita'' and the ''Sushruta Samhita'', it has not been revised by later authors. 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. 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. 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. The original ''Bhela Samhita'' was not identical with the Thanjavur text, as suggested by several quotations. For example, on the topic of applying

enema An enema, also known as a clyster, is an injection of fluid into the lower bowel by way of the rectum.Cullingworth, ''A Manual of Nursing, Medical and Surgical'':155 The word enema can also refer to the liquid injected, as well as to a device ...

to children, the '' Kaashyapa-samhita'' (possibly c. 7th century) attributes an opinion to Bhela which disagrees with the Thanjavur text. Bhela's text is probably not much earlier than the ''Sushruta Samhita''. While the ''Charaka Samhita'' refers to the ''Bhela Samhita'', the Thanjavur version was probably composed after Dṛḍhabala redacted the present-day version of ''Charaka Samhita''. 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.

''Bhela Samhita'' is a medical treatise that primarily deals with internal medicine (''kaya-chikitsa''). The text mainly consists of

shloka Shloka or śloka ( sa, श्लोक , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927). in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is ...

verses in

anuṣṭubh ( sa, अनुष्टुभ्, ) is a meter and a metrical unit, found in both Vedic and Classical Sanskrit poetry, but with significant differences. By origin, an anuṣṭubh stanza is a quatrain of four lines. Each line, called a ''pāda' ...

metre, and only the ''Sharira-sthana'' part contains prose passages. The ''Sutra-sthana'' section of the text lists its contents as follows: Some features of the text include: * It names four categories of living beings:

placentals Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguishe ...

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

germinating Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fern ...

, and moisture-born (''svedaja''). * 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 animal * 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. Its description of the heart is similar to that of the ''Sushruta Samhita'', and it states that according to Parashara, the heart is the first part of the embryo to develop. It also discusses other concepts in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

, such as 8 types of

sweat Perspiration, also known as sweating, is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distribut ...

. * 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. * It states that the mental state of the parents during the sexual intercourse determines the nature (''

guṇa ( sa, गुण) is a concept in Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, which can be translated as "quality, peculiarity, attribute, property".satvika'', '' rajasa'', or '' tamasa'') of a child. * It discusses a wide range of disorders. Examples include various types of

diarrhea Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...

(including the ones caused by fear and grief),; fainting and sleep-related disorders, including

hypersomnia Hypersomnia is a neurological disorder of excessive time spent sleeping or excessive sleepiness. It can have many possible causes (such as seasonal affective disorder) and can cause distress and problems with functioning. In the fifth edition ...

and

insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...

etc. * It discusses a wide range of causes of the disorders, such as abnormalities during pregancy;

constipation Constipation is a bowel dysfunction that makes bowel movements infrequent or hard to pass. The stool is often hard and dry. Other symptoms may include abdominal pain, bloating, and feeling as if one has not completely passed the bowel movement ...

;

bile Bile (from Latin ''bilis''), or gall, is a dark-green-to-yellowish-brown fluid produced by the liver of most vertebrates that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is produced continuously by the liver (liver bile ...

; improper administration of

emetics Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis ...

and

laxatives Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation. Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lub ...

, five causes of baldness and grey hair etc. * It describes 20 kind of

parasites Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

(''krmi''). It describes rainy season as dangerous, stating that there is a high incidence of disease during it. * It rejects the claim that supernatural beings cause

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

, and instead states that an epilepsy attack is caused when one or more ''

dosha ''Dosha'' ( sa, दोषः, IAST: ''doṣa'') is a central term in Ayurveda originating from Sanskrit, which can be translated as "that which can cause problems" (literally meaning "fault" or "defect"), and which refers to three categories or ...

s'' obstruct the veins leading from the heart to the mind. * It rejects the claim that supernatural beings cause

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

, instead attributing it to a gradual process in which the doshas progressively affect the various parts of the mind, including the '' manas'', the '' chitta'' and the ''

buddhi :''In Hindu mythology, Buddhi is one of the wives of Ganesha.'' Buddhi (Sanskrit: बुद्धि) refers to the intellectual faculty and the power to "form and retain concepts, reason, discern, judge, comprehend, understand". Etymology ''Budd ...

''. It also discusses other

mental disorders A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

that may develop into instanity. * It describes many drug formulae and

therapeutic A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

rules. It also mentions religious elements while describing treatment of fevers, such as invoking of deities like

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

and

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

, and chanting of Vedas mantras. It also discusses fevers in animals other than humans. * It mentions

spirit possession Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and rel ...

(''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

exorcist In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person, ...

s (''buta-vaidya'' or ''bhuta-chikitsaka''). * It lists 16 deities that preside over the functions of the body and the mind:

Agni Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ...

Prithvi Prithvi or Prithvi Mata (Sanskrit: पृथ्वी, ', also पृथिवी, ', "the Vast One") is the Sanskrit name for the earth, as well as the name of a devi (goddess) in Hinduism and some branches of Buddhism. In the Vedas, her conso ...

, Apah,

Akasha Akasha or Akash (Sanskrit ' ) means space or sky or æther in traditional Indian cosmology, depending on the religion. The term has also been adopted in Western occultism and spiritualism in the late 19th century. In many modern Indo-Aryan la ...

Vayu Vayu (, sa, वायु, ), also known as Vata and Pavana, is the Hindu god of the winds as well as the divine massenger of the gods. In the ''Vedic scriptures'', Vayu is an important deity and is closely associated with Indra, the king of ...

, Vidyut,

Parjanya Parjanya ( sa, पर्जन्य ) according to the Vedas is a deity of rain, thunder, lightning, and the one who fertilizes the earth. It is another epithet of Indra, the Vedic deity of the sky and heaven. Description It is assumed Parjanya is ...

Indra Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...

Gandharva A gandharva () is a member of a class of celestial beings in Dharmic religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, whose males are divine performers such as musicians and singers, and the females are divine dancers. In Hinduism, they are ...

Mrtyu Mṛtyu ( sa, मृत्यु, lit=Death, translit=Mṛtyu), is a Sanskrit word meaning death. Mṛtyu, or Death, is often personified as the deities ''Mara'' (मर) and ''Yama'' (यम) in Dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. * ...

Aditya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a me ...

, Chandramas,

Tvastar Tvashtr ( sa, त्वष्टृ, Tvaṣṭṛ) is a Vedic artisan god or fashioner. He is also mentioned in later literature of Hinduism like the ''Harivamsa''. Sometimes, Tvashtr is identified with another deity named Vishvakarma. In Hindu L ...

Prajapati Prajapati ( sa, प्रजापति, Prajāpati, lord and protector of creation) is a Vedic deity of Hinduism. In later literature, Prajapati is identified with the creator god Brahma, but the term also connotes many different gods, depe ...

, and

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...

. This list does not match with a similar list in the ''Charaka Samhita''. * It discusses the

transmigration of the soul Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...

Comparison with the ''Charaka Samhita''

The ''

'' refers to ''Bhela Samhita'', and the two texts are similar in many ways: * They agree on several topics, suggesting that they both belong to the

school. * The name of the sections (''sthana''s) and the number of chapters in each section is exactly same. * Several chapters in the two texts have same or similar names. * The chapters in both texts begin in same way. * Both texts (as well as the ''Sushruta Samhita'') feature discussions among sages. For example: ** 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. ** Both texts feature a discussion on which part of the

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

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''. 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''. * Its chapters end differently, with the phrase ''ity āha bhagavān Ātreyaḥ''. * 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. * It contains considerable similarities with the Dhanavantri school represented by the ''

''.

Manuscripts

Only one pre-modern manuscript of ''Bhela Samhita'' with substantial content is known. It is kept at the

, and several copies of this manuscripts have been made, such as the one at the India Office Library. 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. A fragment of ''Bhela Samhita'' survives as one page from a paper manuscript found at

, dated to c. 9th century. It was discovered by Indologist

Heinrich Lüders Heinrich Lüders (25 June 1869 in Lübeck – 7 May 1943 in Badenweiler) was a German Orientalist and Indologist known for his epigraphical analysis of the Sanskrit Turfan fragmentary manuscripts. Biography From 1888 to 1894, he studied a ...

among a collection of manuscripts brought to Europe by archaeologist

Albert von Le Coq Albert von Le Coq (; 8 September 1860 Berlin, Prussia – 21 April 1930 Berlin, Germany) was a Prussian/German brewery owner and wine merchant, who at the age of 40 began to study archaeology.''Schatzjagd an der Seidenstraße.'' A film by Susanne ...

. It contains parts of the ''Nidana-sthana'' Chapter 1 and the ''Vimana-sthana'' chapter 1. The surviving text known from the Thanjavur manuscript appears to be different from the original text that must have once existed. 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. 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''.

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. * 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. * 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 Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

is based on a fresh study of the manuscript, and corrects several mistakes in the earlier editions. * 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

and the ''

''. ''Bhela Samhita'' is one of the sources for the Persian-language text ''Ma'din al-Shifa'' (1512), and

Ibn Sina Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...

may have also been aware of it. The Tibetan tradition refers to Bhela as a medical authority by the name Gzins-can.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * {{ref end

External links

The Bhela Samhita
(1921), University of Calcutta
Transcription of Bhela-samhita
by Tsutomu Yamashita, based on the 1977 edition of the Sarasvati Mahal Library Literary Research Unit Sanskrit texts Ancient Indian medical works