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.
19-700: 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. The text is primarily in form of a dialogue between the sage Atreya and his pupil Bhela (also called Bheḍa). However, several other people also talk to Atreya in
38-480: A dialogue between Atreya and his pupil Bhela. The original contents of Charaka Samhita are credited to Atreya, which were in turn codified and edited by Agnivesha and Charaka. According to Surendranath Dasgupta, The old Ayurveda of Atreya-Charaka school probably has its root in the now extinct Caranavaidya branch of Atharvaveda. According to the Charaka tradition, there existed six schools of medicine, founded by
57-672: 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
76-504: A medical authority by the name Gzins-can. Atreya Atreya or Atreyas (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 a school of early Ayurveda was founded based on his teachings. Some historians of Ayurveda date Atreya to 6th century BCE, and theorize that he
95-560: A palm leaf manuscript kept in Maharaja Sarfoji's library in Thanjavur - and East Turkestan Manuscript, only one folio of a paper manuscript, now kept in Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Charaka later on, taking cues from Agnivesa Samhita, produced the now renowned work Charaka Samhita around 300 B.C. which survived and has been handed down to us in the form of Bower Manuscript dated around 4th century. Charaka Samhita
114-597: Is the foundational text of Ayurveda . This article about a person notable in Hinduism is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tuyoq Tuyoq or Tuyugou or Tuyuk ( Chinese : 吐峪沟 ; pinyin : Tǔyùgōu ; Uyghur : تۇيۇق ) is an ancient oasis -village in the Taklamakan Desert , 70 km east of Turpan in Shanshan County in a lush valley cutting into
133-670: The Charaka Samhita . However, the Tuyoq fragment discusses rakta-pitta instead of kāsa . Several editions of the text have been published, all based on the Thanjavur manuscript: 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
152-495: 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
171-567: 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 verses in anuṣṭubh metre, and only the Sharira-sthana part contains prose passages. The Sutra-sthana section of
190-502: 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
209-404: 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. Modern scholars date the Thanjavur manuscript to c. 1650, and the Bhela Samhita version represented by this manuscript was probably completed in
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#1732791386896228-513: 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
247-545: The disciples of the sage Punarvasu Ātreya. Each of his disciples, Agnivesha, Bhela, Jatūkarna, Parāshara , Hārīta, and Kshārapāni, composed a Samhitā. Of all the six, the one composed by Agnivesha was most revered. According to Dr. Tustomu Yamashita, the Bhela or Bheda(la)Samhita is often quoted by later authors and commentators of Ayurveda. Some of the manuscripts of Bhela available are the Thanjavur Manuscript -
266-578: 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 Tuyoq , dated to c. 9th century. It
285-602: The text lists its contents as follows: Some features of the text include: The Charaka Samhita refers to Bhela Samhita , and the two texts are similar in many ways: However, the Bhela Samhita also differs from the Charaka Samhita in several ways: 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, such as
304-401: The text, including: In the text, the dialogue between Nagnajit and Atreya takes place during Atreya's visit to Gandhara . 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. Multiple sources, including
323-575: The topic of applying enema 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
342-571: Was discovered by Indologist Heinrich Lüders among a collection of manuscripts brought to Europe by archaeologist Albert von Le Coq . 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
361-625: Was the personal physician of the Gandhara king Nagnajita. The Buddhist text Mulasarvastivada -Vinayavastu describes him as the teacher of Jivaka , the personal physician of the Buddha , and connects him to Takshashila in Gandhara. The oldest portions of the Bhela Samhita and the Charaka Samhita represent a consolidation of Atreya's teachings. The Bhela Samhita is in form of
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