Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "ancient-civilization"

No knowledge comes from the outside world or an imaginary supernatural paradise. No knowledge comes from some sort of divine entity, regardless of how effective they are. All knowledge, scientific or philosophical, ancient or modern, rises from the human mind. These minds are by all means just as human any other person on earth. But rigorous training on the self puts them at a higher level of intellect than the general population. However, this height of excellence has its own peculiar purpose. At this level, we thinkers hail ourselves to be the servant of humanity. And this trend of servitude goes back not decades or even centuries, rather a few thousand years. In every age, there are these individuals upon the shoulders of whom the entire human civilization progresses.

But like any other person, we the scientists and philosophers, are ordinary human beings. Today you have Ramachandran, Dawkins, Hawking, myself and many others - and all of them are humans, not gods. And all the work we do - all the scientific and philosophical literature we create, we do so by the use of our very natural human faculties, which have evolved in us, that is all the humanity, through the natural process of evolution. All the knowledge and wisdom that we give to the species are constructed by the biological circuits of our brain, and not by some sort of God. And the same goes to the knowledge that the ancient thinkers of India and some other civilizations came up with. All their knowledge that later constructed the organized textual scriptures of early humanity, were their creation, and not God's.

However, think about this. If I say that my insight of the human mind came not from my own brain through rigorous nourishment and utilization of my intellectual faculties, rather from the Lord Almighty - say Brahma, it is more likely for the vulnerable masses with no scientific awareness whatsoever to embrace my knowledge as divine will. They would embrace the texts created by me as irrefutable gospel. They would submit to every single word at an innate emotional level and hail those words as eternal knowledge, even if I intentionally put some negative elements in those texts to serve my own personal interest and not the interest of the society or the pursuit of truth. And this is exactly what happened to the ancient texts of the Vedas. They say the Vedas are eternal - the knowledge within it came not from the mind of man, but from Brahma himself.

Now imagine the ancient society of India, and in fact all over the world a few thousand years ago. In those days, rational thinking was quite scarce. Ignorance was the default mode of thinking. Only a handful of individuals were capable of higher intellectual thinking. Among them were Vyasa, Susruta, Charaka, Aryabhatta, Vatsayana, Patanjali, Brahmagupta and a few others. These people were the real scientists and philosophers of the ancient Indian society. They were neither gods, nor angels, or any sort of divine beings. They were just ordinary flesh and blood human beings, who happened to be exceptionally intelligent for people of their time.

These great minds despite being born in a superstitious society, were able to break free from their own shackles of prejudices and ignorance. Unfortunately, over time, their scientific contribution started to get hugely overlooked by their own people. Later generations of their motherland began to hail them as some sort of divine beings with supernatural powers, and thus emerged the term “sage” or “rishi”. Even though the term technically means a profoundly wise man, today people abuse it in the worst manner possible.

Sages or Rishis are present in all times. The term itself refers to any ordinary human being who possesses extraordinary expertise in his or her field of work. There is no supernatural element involved in it. In the ancient times, India was full with such brilliant human minds. And in the hands of some of those individuals, we received the most effective and glorious natural means to maintain a healthy anatomy - we received the Knowledge about Healthy Life - the Veda of Ayu - the Ayurveda.

The term "Veda" means knowledge, and even though the innate, primordial, superstitious part of the human mind that has a knack for paranormal stuff, would very much like to believe that what we call the Vedas, came from the mouth of Brahma - that, they are "Apauruseya" (meaning 'not of man' or 'authorless') - in reality, they came from the mind of some ancient Indians, just like "Republic" came from Plato, "The Art of War" came for Sun Tzu, "On the Origin of Species" came from Charles Darwin, "A Brief History of Time” came from Stephen Hawking, "The Selfish Gene" came from Richard Dawkins, "What is Mind?" came from Naskar, "Capital" came from Karl Marx, "Sapiens" came from Yuval Noah Harari and so on. Greed of hierarchically higher people always drives them to incorporate imaginary divine intervention into human creations, so that through these creations, they can have authority over the people in their national society as well as the global society. Hence from the primordial urge for authority rises the need to attach the term "Apauruseya" to the Vedas.

The Vedic Hymns were skillfully crafted by the sages of ancient India through rigorous mental exercise. The sanskrit word Veda is derived from the root "Vid" which means "to know". The Vedic literature was among the earliest written texts in human history, and indeed they are of great scientific and philosophical significance. The Vedas are divided into four folds, namely - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayi vidya", that is, "the triple science" of reciting hymns (Rigveda), performing sacrifices (Yajurveda), and chanting songs (Samaveda). The Rigveda is the oldest of all the Vedic texts, which is approximately from the period of 1900 to 1100 BC.

And what you today know as Ayurveda is a sub-section of the fourth Veda - the Atharva Veda. Like it happens to all the ancient scriptures, the Atharva Veda is an amazing mixture of wonderful scientific truth and mystical and prejudicial non-sense such as metaphorical magic spells. The scientific part of this text is what we call Ayurveda, which deals with various physical and mental ailments. And when we talk about Ayurveda, the three most important minds that you need to get acquainted with are Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata. All the knowledge of Ayurveda rise from the scientific compositions of the first two of these scientists and detailed elaboration of the third one.

Charaka (1st century A.D.) wrote Charaka Samhita (samhita- meaning collection of verses written in Sanskrit). Susruta (4th century A.D.) wrote his Samhita i.e Susruta Samhita. Vaghbata (5th century A.D.) compiled the third set of major texts called Ashtanga Hridaya and Ashtanga Sangraha. Charaka’s School of Physicians and Susruta’s School of Surgeons became the basis of Ayurveda and helped organize and systematically classify into branches of medicine and surgery.

In the ensuing years sixteen major supplementary texts or Nighantus were composed by a few other brilliant minds, such as Dhanvantari Bahavaprakasha, Raja and Shaligrama to name a few – that helped refine the practice of Ayurveda. New drugs were added and ineffective ones were discarded. Expansion of application, identification of new illnesses and finding substitute treatments seemed to have been an evolving process. Close to 2000 plants that were used in healing diseases and abating symptoms were identified in these supplements. Dridhabala in the 4th century revised the Charaka Samhita. The texts of Susruta Samhita were revised and supplemented by Nagarjuna in the 6th century.

Thus, several scientific minds of a society which was at large mostly ignorant, gave rise to a fantastically effective natural system of maintaining health, comprising eight major branches, that later became known as Ayurveda. The eight branches of this system were:
1. Kaya-chikitsa (Internal Medicine)
2. Shalakya Tantra (surgery and treatment of head and neck, Ophthalmology and ear, nose, throat)
3. Shalya Tantra (Surgery)
4. Agada Tantra (Toxicology)
5. Bhuta Vidya (Psychiatry)
6. Kaumara bhritya (Pediatrics)
7. Rasayana (science of rejuvenation or anti-ageing)
8. Vajikarana (the science of fertility and aphrodisiac)

All the advancement in Ayurveda was based upon the core scientific compositions of Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata – mainly the compositions of Charaka and Susruta. Charaka, a 1st century man of medicine is perceived as the father of ancient Indian medicine. He was the Raj Vaidya (royal doctor) in the court of Kanishka. He is most celebrated for his scientific work known as Charak Samhita. It is a remarkable book on medicine. It has the description of a large number of diseases and gives methods of identifying their causes as well as the method of treating them. He was one of the early scientists in the world to talk about digestion, metabolism and immunity as important for health and so for medicinal sciences.

Susruta on the other hand was a brilliant surgeon who lived around 1500 years ago. His work Susruta Samhita is literally the earliest scientific work on the methodology of surgery. Let me bring up an excerpt from my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul in this context:

"He (Susruta) considered surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned including fevers of twenty-six kinds, jaundice of eight kinds and urinary complaints of twenty kinds. Over 760 plants are described. All roots, bark, juice, resin, flowers etc. are mentioned as useful in health purposes. Cinnamon, sesame, peppers, cardamom, ginger are household remedies even today.
In Susruta Samhita, the method of selecting and preserving a dead body for the purpose of its detailed study has also been described. The dead body of an old man or a person who died of a severe disease was generally not considered for studies. The body needed to be perfectly cleaned and then preserved in the bark of a tree. It was then kept in a cage and hidden carefully in a spot in the river. There the current of the river softened it. After seven days it was removed from the river. It was then cleaned with a brush made of grass roots, hair and bamboo. When this was done, every inner or outer part of the body could be seen clearly.
Susruta’s greatest contribution was in the fields of Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and Ophthalmic surgery (removal of cataracts). In those days, cutting of nose and ears was a common punishment. Restoration of these, or limbs lost in wars was a great blessing. In Susruta Samhita, there is a very accurate step-by-step description of these operation procedures. Surprisingly, the steps followed by Susruta are strikingly similar to those followed by modern surgeons while doing plastic surgery. Susruta Samhita also gives a description of 101 instruments used in surgery. Some serious operations performed by him included taking foetus out of the womb, repairing the damaged rectum, removing stone from the bladder, etc."

Another important name behind Ayurveda was Vaghbata. Even though his work was not as original as the two major founders of Ayurveda - Charaka and Susruta, he made the works of these two scientists more lucid. Vaghbata in the 5th century compiled two sets of texts called Ashtanga Sangraha and Ashtanga Hridaya. In his work, he shed light on the Internal Medicine of Charaka Samhita and the various surgical procedures of Susruta Samhita.

Now the most important feature of these scientific works is that in all of them, their composers emphasized on the physiological aspects of human life, unlike the contemporary abundance of spiritual perspective in the society. They talked about science and rationality in a society, where everyone else was talking about demons, gods, ghosts and witches. Even when they were surrounded by ignorance, going quite against their society, they nourished their intellect and made it so strong and pure that it gave rise to some of the most glorious works in human history.

Today, the Ayurveda that they created, falls under the category of Alternative Medicine with all its natural remedies. As I have said in Prescription - "Ayurvedic remedies actually introduce active natural ingredients to the body. Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention of illness and promotion of wellness. And that’s precisely what many of the Ayurvedic remedies do. Ingredients like ginger, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, garlic etc. have in fact proven to have significant influence in promoting health and preventing illness."

However, you must remember that Ayurveda is no substitute for modern medicine. Modern Medicine has evolved through rigorous efforts of thousands of scientists through centuries. And I must admit that Modern Medicine as it is today, is predicated on the core principle of treating ailments, while the ancient system of Ayurveda is mostly predicated on the prevention of ailments. Therefore, utilizing various natural substances recorded in the Ayurvedic literature, in your daily life can help you maintain a healthy body as well as deal with minor bodily issues, and can greatly prevent major ailments, but if a major disease does rise, remember that Modern Medicine is the most effective tool that you can have, not any ancient system, be it Ayurveda or anything else. Hence, use Ayurveda - it will keep you healthy, but sometimes the body needs more advance treatment than Ayurveda can provide, and that need can only be met by Modern Medicine can provide.

Nevertheless, quite similar to us modern day scientists, all those scientists of ancient India were ordinary humans with excellent minds. There was nothing supernatural about their intelligence. So, start seeing them the way they actually were. Stop the paranormal fanaticism right now if you want your society to grow. Grow a brilliant and rational mind within yourself just as the scientists of ancient India did. Use your ability of reasoning to distinguish the genuine scientific works from the hodge-podge of fantasies.

Ayurveda if embraced properly can become a great promoter of heath in your life. In fact, all the Vedic texts can become a great tool in the path of humanity's progress, if their adjacent primordial fanaticism, such as they being written by a mystical figure called "Ganesha", is torn apart. Today you know that “Rahu” and “Ketu” were imaginations of the ignorant mind in an unqualified attempt to explain the phenomenon of eclipse - you know how positions of the sun, earth and moon occasionally give rise to solar and lunar eclipses. Likewise, one after another you need to get to rid of all the prejudicial concepts in your society and only then the good and beneficial ideas of the ancient texts shall rise to aid humanity. It is only through rational investigation of the ancient texts that they can become a true help to human life.

Early Arabs and Indians
invented astronomy and algebra,
Early white people invented
genocide and massacre.

Indigenous Latinos invented chocolate,
Early Chinese invented printing.
Early Caucasians invented cockiness,
calling invasion as civilization-bringing.

Modern Arabs build cities in the desert,
Modern whites still burn down cities.
Modern Indians democratize space exploration,
Modern whites still manufacture disparities.

Modern whites coddle hate and prejudice,
and use free speech as justification.
If any humane white ever questions hate,
they’re branded, woke traitor to the nation.

Till this day, white people manufacture
99% of the world’s human rights violations.
If you right the wrong, it’s cussed as wokeness,
To support white terrorism is patriotism.

At the end of the century,
fascism leaves no lasting mark
on thousand year old civilizations,
it’s only the adolescent countries like
the US that get wiped out of existence.

Tyrants come, tyrants go,
both foreign and domestic,
ancient civilizations endure political
upheaval like a bleep in the continuum,

whereas, destiny manifested on patchwork history
and bootleg culture, collapse into obsolescence.

So the world continues, culture continues,
reformation continues, even better without
the parasitic powers of world politics –
civilization thrives for they’re never aloof,
but ever entwined with Nature’s dynamics.