Uploaded August 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Philipp Maas (University of Leipzig),
On Caraka’s account of the origin of Rasāyana
Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia: Body Cultivation, Therapeutic Intervention and the Sowa Rigpa Industry.
University of Vienna
1st - 3rd August, 2017
On Caraka’s account of the origin of rasāyana
The oldest systematic Sanskrit treatise on Āyurveda, the Carakasaṃhitā, contains a brief narrative on how rejuvenation therapy (rasāyana) became to be known among human beings. This origination myth was not designed to record historical facts; it was invented to express the religious world view, anthropology, and self image of Brāhmaṇa healers and physicians in early classical India and to create acceptance by narrative means for Āyurveda and its rejuvenation therapy in a cultural and religious milieu which was unfamiliar with this system of thought. In order to pursue these two interrelated aims, the author of the narrative referrers to a variety of religious conceptions, some of which are closely related to Vedic Brāhmaṇism, whereas other religious ideas were more prominent in śramaṇa-milieus. This presentation will analyze these motifs on the backdrop of the intellectual and religious history of early South Asia in order to provide new evidence in support of the hypothesis that Āyurveda developed from a plurality of related medical currents within the śramaṇa-milieu into a strongly Brāhmaṇa-affiliated system of medical thought.
Philipp Maas (University of Leipzig),
On Caraka’s account of the origin of Rasāyana
Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia: Body Cultivation, Therapeutic Intervention and the Sowa Rigpa Industry.
University of Vienna
1st - 3rd August, 2017
On Caraka’s account of the origin of rasāyana
The oldest systematic Sanskrit treatise on Āyurveda, the Carakasaṃhitā, contains a brief narrative on how rejuvenation therapy (rasāyana) became to be known among human beings. This origination myth was not designed to record historical facts; it was invented to express the religious world view, anthropology, and self image of Brāhmaṇa healers and physicians in early classical India and to create acceptance by narrative means for Āyurveda and its rejuvenation therapy in a cultural and religious milieu which was unfamiliar with this system of thought. In order to pursue these two interrelated aims, the author of the narrative referrers to a variety of religious conceptions, some of which are closely related to Vedic Brāhmaṇism, whereas other religious ideas were more prominent in śramaṇa-milieus. This presentation will analyze these motifs on the backdrop of the intellectual and religious history of early South Asia in order to provide new evidence in support of the hypothesis that Āyurveda developed from a plurality of related medical currents within the śramaṇa-milieu into a strongly Brāhmaṇa-affiliated system of medical thought.
