THE ANTIQUITY OF AYURVEDA

        Ayurveda is closely connected with the Vedic culture, which is believed to have developed after the arrival of the Aryans into India. Rig Veda was well recognised by 1,000 BCE. Both Rig Veda and Atharva Veda contain references to health and disease. Descriptions of treatment of diseases are given in 114 hymns in the Atharva Veda.

        The Samhithas by Charaka and Sushrutha represent well structured and highly developed therapeutic and philosophgcal thought presented in a sophisticated language. Cultural and social historians dated the Samhithas variously between 300 BCE and 300 CE. Some ‘refinement’ in the Samhithas might have been introduced during the subsequent period, but it seems reasonable to consider that the thought and experience content of the Samhiths probably took more than a millennium to crystallise into the treatises. The roots of such cultural evolution go much farther, back into time, and are difficult to trace.

        There have been several recent reinterpretations of the archaeological, cultural and social history of the Indian subcontinent, reviewed and summarised by Sharma (1995). Evidence for the existence of the Aryan culture, which predates the Vedic culture at least by a millennium, was based on the Rig Veda and Avesta, supported by other evidence such as the domestication of the horse, horse sacrifice, use of chariots, male dominance, fire altar, cremation of the dead, soma cult, etc. This evidence indicates that the Aryans have arrived in north-western India around 2,000 BCE. On this basis, a complicated reasoning placed the time of appearance of the Samhithas more in the CE, than in the BCE, probably about 600 CE, if not later. Fuerstein et al., (1999) considered that the Aryan culture was well connected to Greece and other Mediterranean Centres. The Aryan invasion is described as a myth. The arguments put forward by Fuerstein et al., (1999) make it further difficult to accurately date the Aryan influence and the origin and development of Ayurveda.

        In a system of medicine, what is important is its current relevance, efficacy and utility. Dating the source texts, a few centuries this way or that way does not affect the quality of the system and is not a matter of consequence in the evaluation of the current context of the use of the system. The emotional element apart, there is no merit in mere antiquity, divorced from validity. Whatever is the time of origin of Ayurveda, today it is still an important system of medicine, very much needed, in this country, and probably elsewhere too.

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