Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
157
Buddha the Gotama who was born under a tree
with medicinal value
15
is ironically understood to have
established a faith with apathy towards Ayurveda. The
absence of a single treatise on medicine among the works
within Tripitaka or entire Buddhist literature leads
scholars to
declare
Ayurveda owing nothing especial to
the faith of the EnlightenedOne!
16
This science of medicine
based on herbs and plants could not grow as the learning
centres of Buddhism did not
offer
suitable weather for
such science. The Buddhist texts highlighting all the time
that life is full of misery and transcending the same is real
happiness
17
could not envisage the utility of the ancient
science of Ayurveda prospering. The reference in the
classical Buddhist texts prohibiting Buddhist monks from
practising medicine
18
makes such scholars to jump to the
conclusion of Ayurveda being too
mundane
and therefore
worldly. Similarly, a Nikaya text does not allow a true
Buddhist monk to take medicine even in smallest
15
Botanically known as Shorea robusta
(a species of tree belonging to
the
Dipterocarpaceae
family), Sala tree is known for producing a
resin,
r.
la in Sanskrit, which is used as an
astringent
in
Ayurvedic
medicine. See, Udoy Chand Dutt 1887
The Materia Medica Of
The Hindus
, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. 1877. It is highly
effective in dysentery. Susruta refers to it as Sarja-rasa which has
medicinal use for child( Susruta Samhita XXXI. 2).
16
See Kenneth G. Zysk 1998
Asceticism and Healing in Ancient
India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery
, New Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass.
