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CHARAK SAMHITA

Charaka Samhita of present is basically an enlarged form of theoriginal Agnivesh tantra.

While discussing “History of Ayurveda” we have learnt that the

Agnivesh Tantra stems from the first cognitions of the ancient

rishis like Bhardwaja and Punarvasu Atrey  regarding Ayurveda.

Agnivesh tantra was in Sutra /Verse form, which was elaborated

on by Charaka  with his lucid  Annotations  /Bhashya in such aspectacular way that the treatise became popularly known as

Charak Samhita.

The exact period of Charak Samhita cannot be established.

With time, even Charak Samhita did not survive in its complete

form and almost one third  of its contents was lost.

The missing part was later rewritten by Drudhbala who sourced

similar material from contemporary works and completed the

Charak Samhita to its present form.

Unfortunately, Drudhbala's period cannot be established either,

apart from the proposition that his work could not have been

earlier than 4th century AD  due to the references found in

works like Navanitaka.

OVERVIEW OF AYURVEDA  BRUHAT_TRAYI _CHARAK_SAMHITA

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TRANSLATIONS OF CHARAK SAMHITA

Charaka Samhita was translated from Sanskrit into Arabic  inthe beginning of the 8th century   and its name SharakaIndianus occurs in the latin translation of Avicenna, Razes, andSerapion.

A translation of Charak Samhita from Sanskrit into Persian and

from Persian into Arabic is mentioned in the Fihrist*  ( finishedin A.D. 987 ).

It is likewise mentioned by Alberuni.

Charaka Samhita was first translated into English by

 A.C. Kaviratnain 1897 .

*Fihrist,is a book completed in 987 Ad gives ample testimony to the knowledge of

 pre-Islamic Persia and its literature in classical Islamic civilization. It was written by Arab scientist and scholar "Ibn al- Nadim". IN the authors own words Fihrist means "anindex of the books of all nations" .

OVERVIEW OF AYURVEDA  BRUHAT_TRAYI _CHARAK_SAMHITA

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CHARAK SAMHITA OF PRESENT

The Charaka Samhitha now available has 8 sthanas. [A!h"angasth!na], totaling one hundred and twenty chapters:

Sutra sthana (30 chapters),Nidana sthana (8 chapters),Vimana sthana (8 chapters),Sarira sthana (8 chapters),Indriya sthana (12 chapters),

Chikitsa sthana (30 chapters),Kalpa sthana (12 chapters)Siddhi sthana (12 chapters).

The 17 chapters of Chikitsa sthana  and complete Kalpasthana and Siddhi sthana were later added by Drudhbal.

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COMMENTARIES ON CHARAK SAMHITA

 AYURVEDADIPIKA  is a very popular commentary [“tika]  on

Charak Samhita written by Chakrapanidatta. 

The work also known as "Charak-tatparya-tika" was composed

around 11th cent. AD  and is heavily relied upon by various

Ayurvedic scholars and healers in India to decipher Charaka

Samhita and apply its concepts in treatment.

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ABOUT CHARAK 

The life and times of Charaka are not known with certainty.

Some Indian scholars have stated that Charaka of CharakaSamhita existed before Panini, the grammarian, who is said to

have lived before the sixth century B. C. 

Another school argues that Patanjali  wrote a commentary on

the medical work of Charaka, which is corroborated by his

commentator, Chakrapanidatta. They say that if Patanjali lived

around 175 B.C., Charaka must have lived some time before

him.

Another source about the identity of Charaka and his times is

provided by the French orientalist Sylvan Levi.

He discovered in the Chinese translation  of the BuddhistTripitaka, a person named Charaka who was a court physician

to the Indo-Scythian  King Kanishka, who in all probability

reigned in the second century A.D.

From the above discussion, it would seem that Charaka may

have lived between the second century B.C. to the secondcentury A.D.

Till such time as further and more conclusive evidence is

available, to narrow down this period would not be justifiable.

OVERVIEW OF AYURVEDA  BRUHAT_TRAYI _CHARAK_SAMHITA

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