Concept
Charaka Samhita
Overview
The Charaka Samhita (Sanskrit: चरक संहिता, romanized: Caraka-Saṃhitā, lit. 'Compendium of Charaka') is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine), attributed to Charaka (c. 1st–2nd century CE) and later revised by Dṛḍhabala. It presents theories of physiology, diagnosis, anatomy, and tridosha (three humors of the body), and is considered one of the most authoritative texts on Indian medicine. Along with the Sushruta Samhita, it is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancient India. It is one of the three works that constitute the Brhat Trayi.
The text is based on the Agnivesha Samhitā, an older encyclopedic medical compendium by Agniveśa. It was revised by Charaka between 100 BCE and 200 CE and renamed Charaka Samhitā. The pre-2nd century CE text consists of 8 books and 120 chapters. It describes ancient theories on the human body, etiology, symptomology and therapeutics for a wide range of diseases. The Charaka Samhita also includes sections on the importance of diet, hygiene, prevention, medical education, and the teamwork of a physician, nurse and patient necessary for recovery to health.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
1. _The Sanc’hya Philosophy of Capila_. The originator of the Sanc’hya is called Capila, and he was an ancient sage of whom it was said that he was a son of Brahma, and one of the seven great Holy men; others say that he was an incarnation of Vishnu, like his disciple Asuri, and that he was identified with fire. As to the age of the Aphorisms (Sutras) of Capila, Colebrooke can say nothing; he merely mentions that…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Charaka Samhita is.
99. Others of the Indians, dwelling to the East of these, are pastoral and eat raw flesh: these are called Padaians, and they practise the following customs:—whenever any of their tribe falls ill, whether it be a woman or a man, if a man then the men who are his nearest associates put him to death, saying that he is wasting away with the disease and his flesh is being spoilt for them: 89 and meanwhile he denies…
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Charaka Samhita is.
From these perturbations arise, first, diseases, which they call [Greek: nosêmata]; and also those feelings which are in opposition to these diseases, and which admit certain faulty distastes or loathings; then come sicknesses, which are called [Greek: arrhôstêmata] by the Stoics, and these two have their opposite aversions. Here the Stoics, especially Chrysippus, give themselves unnecessary trouble to show the…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth
States what Charaka Samhita is.
Related ideas
- Ātman (Hinduism)
- Kama
- Vedas
- Guru
- Bhashya
- Brahman
- Sanskrit
- Common Era
- Guṇa
- Dharma
- Prakriti
- Indra
- Atharvaveda
- Shaucha
Place in the tradition
Part of Samkhya.