Legacy of Vagbhata‘Legacy of Vagbhata’ by M. S. Valiathan K. Rajagopalan, G. Geetha Krishnan1 Sushrutha Bhavan, Hospital Road, Kollam, Kerala, 1Department of Integrative Medicine (Ayurveda), Medanta - The Medicity, Gurgaon NCT, Harayana, India. Price: Rs.1,195.00 ISBN: 978-81-7371-668-3 Pages: 946 Year: 2009 Binding: Hardback Publisher: Universities Press BOOKREVIEW A text book for students and practitioners of Ayurveda, to understand “Astangahrdaya”, is how MS Valiathan describes his venture, “The Legacy of Vagbhata”, the latest in the trilogy of Brihat trayees. Written in the structure and form of the former two books of this series, “The Legacy of Charaka” and “The Legacy of Sushruta,” in “The Legacy of Vagbhata”, Valiathan dissects and reassembles Astangahrdaya, with the precision and skill of the great surgeon that he is. The resemblance to the structure of a modern medical text book is unmistakable. It follows the logical build-up from the basics of the science to the intricacies of super specialties and finally regenerative medicine. In writing his “Legacy series”, Valiathan adopted from the start, a format that would make them readily accessible to students who opt for Ayurveda and medicine after 12 years of school, while maintaining the utmost fidelity to the original texts. Thus “Legacy of Vagbhata” refrains from lengthy and inconclusive discussions on non-medical topics such as the identity of Vagbhata, his date and place of birth and so on. It is appropriate, and in line with the thoughts of great sages of India, that Vagbhata’s legacy is not sought through dissecting his speculative personal details, but the subject itself. Vagbhata, like his predecessors, cared to say little about himself or the times in which he lived, but left it to his work to speak, timelessly. ‘Concise’, ‘in a nut shell’, ‘easy to memorize’, ‘poetic’, ‘more contemporary with regard to medicines’, ‘essence of Samhitas by Charaka, Sushrutha, and the Sangraha by Vagbhata’; these are a few of the comments made about Vagbhata's great literary and scientific work, the “Astangahrdaya”. In this respect Valiathan’s endeavor sticks closely to the heart of Vagbhata and concisely summarizes the deep knowledge of Astangahrdaya into easily understandable tables and figures, thus paving the way for it to be used as a quick reference guide to the original. Explaining his decision to work with Astangahrdaya (AH) instead of Astangasangraha (AS), as the text book of choice, to look into the life, philosophies, thoughts, and poetic marvel of Vagbhata, Valiathan says that Vagbhata himself considered AH to have grown out of the immaculate knowledge of ancient sages and their studies. He explains that he had sufficiently looked into Astangasangraha of Vagbhata, and, “soon realised that neither time nor my training would permit me to write on Vagbhata’s legacy based on a critical and exhaustive study of Sangraha and Hrdaya” together. Astangahrdaya owed its great appeal over earlier texts, to the beauty of its verses, its masterly style of condensation, logical arrangement of topics, clarity of description, and other merits. No doubt it was translated into foreign languages, such as, Arabic, Persian, and Tibetan many centuries ago, and more recently into European languages. Astangahrdaya is a medically oriented work, with principal emphasis on internal medicine (Kayachikitsa). South of the Vindhyas, its popularity has rivaled that of the Samhitas of Charaka and Sushruta, whose names are revered, but not widely read. Valiathan, after his attempts to travel through the Brihat trayees (as the three major treatises of Ayurveda are known) states that; “the core of Ayurvedic doctrines, and profile of diseases and procedures, remain unchanged over centuries, whereas, changes which did occur, were more or less confined to the domain of medicinal formulations.” To some one well versed with AH, the ingenuity of Valiathan’s work rests in the part where he attempts to compare certain aspects of AH, AS, and the Charaka Samhita (CS), by looking at the concepts of Panchamahabhuta, Phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis), and the Panchakarma process of Basti. In the process, Valiathan clearly builds his case, bringing to light very definite trends in the evolution of doctrines, treatment approaches, medical procedures, and pharmaceutical preparations, as traced through time and mirrored through the scientific literature of CS, AS, and AH. “….the remarkable absence of significant changes (may) be due to the fact that AS and AH both drew their inspiration from Drdhabala’s commentary, a redaction of Charaka, which was probably written in the sixth century .... not long before (Vagbhata) lived.” “As medicine evolved after Charaka, it became more of a practical art, with decreasing emphasis on its philosophical basis. One should look less for the abstract and the profound, and more for the concrete and practical in AS and AH, which were written for busy practitioners and young trainees of Ayurveda, who then, as at present, had little time or inclination for philosophical reflection”, opines Valiathan. Vagbhata was obviously keen, as indeed he has acknowledged, to restate the essence of past knowledge in Ayurveda to suit his times, and he was also conscious of the success of his effort, as shown by his confident statement: “From those extensive texts, the essence alone has been extracted in this treatise — Astangahrdaya — which is neither too short nor too long.” Vagbhata, through his work, boldly throws the challenge to his posterity on the imperative for them to study his work or that of Charaka or Sushruta. Astangahrdaya is celebrated not only for simplification and extraction, but also for its brilliant use of similes (upama), rhyme (prasa), and a variety of metrical structures (vrtta). Almost every verse in AH is so melodious and pleasing to the ear, that the reader will probably be carried away as much by the magic of Vagbhata’s poetry, as by the serious medical concepts that it intends to convey! Valiathan's quotes from AH bear eloquent testimony to Vagbhata’s dual claim to greatness as both a physician and a poet. It is a tribute to Vagbhata's genius that he could effortlessly infuse poetry into such mundane themes as the collection of suitable herbs for treatment. Nothing in the domains of health, disease, and healing, including death, was too prosaic or too technical for Vagbhata’s muse to touch and adorn. The reverence with which Valiathan treats Vagbhata, the depth and reach of his immense understanding along the length and breadth of the Brihat trayees, and his perception of the purpose of medical science, can be read with clarity in the words with which Valiathan concludes his introduction: “Vagbhata was the king of the domain of Ayurveda, as well as the king of poetic rhythm and style; along with his sparkling distillate of ancient lore, he succeeded in giving us an admirable text, which has never been exceeded in authority by anything written by his successors. But Vagbhata derives his majesty, above all, from his application of moral ideas to the practice of medicine under conditions fixed by the ancient precepts of Ayurveda. Vagbhata’s moral universe was not bound up with any rigid system of thought or belief. He knew that the practice of a medicine indifferent to moral ideas would be soulless and indifferent to life as well. Alone among the Acharyas, he had the heart to proclaim that “a mind, pure and soaked in compassion, is the best febrifuge.” No wonder, he remains one of the chief glories of Ayurveda, who is truly worthy of our homage. It is a must for the student and every Ayurvedic scientist, to read and understand Vagbhata, who with his profound knowledge of life and health, stands alone and boldly states, “A physician should never feel ashamed of being unable to name a disease; the fact is that not all diseases have been named.” Valiathan’s book provides a uniquely excellent window into this vast and profound wisdom.