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Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
physician in a previous birth in Jataka
27
.
While laying down the monastic rules, Buddha
instructed monks to sweep the compound of the
monastery and attend to other duties to exercise their
bodies, to ensure good health and to keep the premises
clean. Those monks who were ill were advised to use
Ayurvedic medicines and whenever needed to apply
ointment to their sore feet.
The closeness of Buddha with Jivaka is quite well
known. Jivaka, a destitute child found and nurtured by a
royalty,
28
is the brand ambassador of Ayurveda principles
and its application in his times. Ananda fetched him to
treat Buddha of his stomach related problem. When Jivaka
saw the condition of the patient, it occurred to him he
might not survive a strong purgative. He then had fat
rubbed into the Buddha’s body and gave him lotus flowers
to inhale the essence emanating from the flowers
29
.
Jivaka’s prescription yielded the positive result. He also
happened to treat him on another occasion when
24
Milindapanho
4.1.33
25
ibid
.4.1.63
26
‘Sutra of the Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteshvara
Boddhisatta on the Treatment of Illness and the Preparation of
Drug’:
Ch’ien-shou ch’ien-ye Kuan-shih-yin p’u-sa chih ping ho-yao
ching
is the perhaps the text which the Chinese pilgrim in India
Yijing (I Ching) mentioned in the fifth century AD.
27
Visvanta Jataka
69.1.310
