Samhita Adhyayan — 1 संहिता अध्ययन १

Ashtanga Hridaya, and the method of reading a Samhita · First Professional (Prathama Varsha) · AyUG-SA1

Papers

• Paper I — Samhita Adhyayan 1

Units in this subject

Study notes

Ashtanga Hridaya, and how to read a Samhita at all. Under NCISM this paper is Vagbhata's text, not a first instalment of Charaka — Charaka Purvardha is the second paper and Uttarardha the third. The Hridaya is the most memorised of the Brihattrayi because it is entirely in verse and deliberately condensed, and a great deal of what a vaidya recites for the rest of their life comes from it.

How to read a Samhita, and who wrote what

• BRIHATTRAYI: Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya. LAGHUTRAYI: Sharangadhara Samhita, Bhavaprakasha and Madhava Nidana. Both triads are asked by name.
• Charaka: composed by Agnivesha as the Agnivesha Tantra, redacted by Charaka, and completed by DRIDHABALA, who wrote Chikitsasthana 17 to 30 together with Kalpasthana and Siddhisthana. Naming Dridhabala's share is a certain question.
• Sushruta: the Sushruta Samhita as we have it was redacted by Nagarjuna, and the Uttaratantra is generally held to be a later addition.
• COMMENTATORS: Chakrapanidatta on Charaka (Ayurveda Deepika), Dalhana on Sushruta (Nibandha Sangraha), Gayadasa on Sushruta Nidanasthana (Nyayachandrika), Arunadatta on Ashtanga Hridaya (Sarvangasundara), Hemadri on Ashtanga Hridaya (Ayurveda Rasayana), Indu on Ashtanga Sangraha (Shashilekha).
• Reading method: identify the kriya and its karta first, then the karaka, then the samasa. A shloka read without finding the verb is a shloka not read.
• The Samhitas are in anushtubh for the most part — thirty-two syllables in four padas of eight — which is why they can be memorised at all.

Vagbhata, and the two texts

• ASHTANGA SANGRAHA is prose and verse mixed and is the fuller text. ASHTANGA HRIDAYA is entirely verse and is the condensed one. Both are attributed to Vagbhata, and whether that is one author or two is an old and unsettled question.
• The Hridaya is the most widely taught and most widely memorised of the Brihattrayi, and is the standard text in Kerala.
• SIX STHANA and 120 chapters: Sutrasthana 30, Sharirasthana 6, Nidanasthana 16, Chikitsasthana 22, Kalpa-Siddhi 6, Uttarasthana 40. Charaka also has 120 chapters but in EIGHT sthana — the counts match and the divisions do not, which is exactly the trap.
• Uttarasthana is the largest sthana at forty chapters and carries shalakya, shalya, agada, bhuta vidya, balaroga, rasayana and vajikarana — the seven branches Sutrasthana does not cover.
• Vagbhata's own ordering differs from Charaka's: Sharirasthana comes SECOND in the Hridaya and fourth in Charaka.

Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana — the chapters that are quoted

• Chapter 1 AYUSHKAMIYA opens the text. It carries the definition of Ayurveda's purpose and the famous line on the three doshas. Charaka opens with Deerghanjiviteeya instead — confusing the two openings is a common error.
• Chapter 2 DINACHARYA and chapter 3 RITUCHARYA are the source of most of what is taught in Swasthavritta.
• Chapter 4 ROGANUTPADANIYA gives the thirteen adharaniya vega, and is where the vega list is usually quoted from.
• Chapter 5 DRAVADRAVYA VIJNANIYA covers water, milk, oils and the liquid dravya; chapter 6 ANNASWARUPA VIJNANIYA covers foods.
• Chapter 8 MATRASHITIYA on the right quantity of food, chapter 11 DOSHADI VIJNANIYA on the dosha-dhatu-mala, chapter 12 DOSHABHEDIYA on their varieties, chapter 13 DOSHOPAKRAMANIYA on their management.
• Vagbhata's sutra are shorter than Charaka's and are what a student is usually asked to recite, which is why chapter numbers in the Hridaya are worth knowing precisely.

The other sthana of the Ashtanga Hridaya

• SHARIRASTHANA, six chapters: garbhavakranti, garbhavyakarana, angavibhaga, marma vibhaga, viruddhavyadhi and dootadi vijnaniya. Vagbhata's marma account is more compact than Sushruta's and is often the one quoted.
• NIDANASTHANA, sixteen chapters, beginning with sarva roga nidana and covering jwara, raktapitta, kasa, shwasa, rajayakshma, madatyaya, arsha, atisara, mutraghata, prameha, vidradhi, gulma, udara, pandu, visarpa and kushtha.
• CHIKITSASTHANA, twenty-two chapters, following the Nidana order — which makes the Hridaya easier to navigate than Charaka, where Nidana and Chikitsa do not correspond one to one.
• KALPA-SIDDHI STHANA, six chapters, on the preparation of shodhana dravya and the conduct of panchakarma, combining what Charaka keeps as two separate sthana.
• UTTARASTHANA, forty chapters: balopacharaniya and the paediatric chapters first, then graha, then netra, karna, nasa, mukha and shiro roga, then vrana, bhagna, granthi, kshudra roga, guhya roga, visha and finally rasayana and vajikarana.

What the three Samhita papers actually cover

• SAMHITA ADHYAYAN 1 is Ashtanga Hridaya, with the study method and the commentators. SAMHITA ADHYAYAN 2 is Charaka Purvardha — Sutra, Nidana, Vimana, Sharira and Indriya. SAMHITA ADHYAYAN 3 is Charaka Uttarardha — Chikitsa, Kalpa and Siddhi.
• Many universities still call papers 2 and 3 'Charaka Samhita Purvardha' and 'Uttarardha'. Those are the same papers under older names, and a candidate should recognise both.
• Sushruta is read alongside throughout rather than as a paper of its own in the NCISM scheme — its surgical content sits in Shalya Tantra and its sharira in Rachana Sharira.
• Always check your own university's syllabus for the paper pattern and the marks. The subjects are national; the paper divisions are not.

Where the texts disagree

• Whether the Ashtanga Sangraha and the Ashtanga Hridaya share one author is disputed, and the standard answer is to state the dispute.
• Vagbhata's religious affiliation is argued from internal evidence; Buddhist affiliation is the commoner reading.
• The Hridaya condenses Charaka and Sushruta, and where it differs from both, the difference is itself examinable.

Commonly confused

• Ashtanga Sangraha (longer, prose) and Ashtanga Hridaya (condensed, verse).
• Arunadatta's Sarvanga Sundara and Hemadri's Ayurveda Rasayana - two commentaries on one text.

Practise it, and prove it