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MATERIAL CULTURE
181
breathing over it.' Bana also obviously refers to the custom of applying lac-dye when he remarks that “a fresh lac-branch becomes worthless through the taking of its sap.'>2
Medicine and Health
While the clothes, ornaments and toilet articles aim at enhancing the outer beauty of an individual, the medicine like food aims at the inner perfection of the body. Body free from all the diseases could only be benefitted by the materialistic -achievements of a people. It was firmly believed that a disease must be cured at the earliest, otherwise it would become incuTable like the debt which becomes irrepayable because of its manifold interest or like a plant which is hard to be uprooted after it has grown up to a tree.s
The great sage Dhanvantarit was thought to be the first propounder of the Science of Medicine on earth. He is believed to have composed the first treatise on Medicine, viz. the Vejjasattha, by seeing it through his clairvoyant know
1. 375470Tt glasstat confà-Ibid. cf. aralaTIFIAFTIETOTI gaat
oftar ARCT-Mālavikāgnimitra, Act III, 13. 2. Candi ataka; p. 269; also Kādambari, p. 23. 3. NC. 3, p. 394. 4. NC. 3, p. 512; NC. 4, p. 340; BỊh. Vr. 2, p. 302.
In most of the ancient texts Dhanvantari is cited to have been an authority on Medical Sciences (Harivansa Purana, 3. 303 Mahābhārata, Adiparva, 18. 38; Visnu Purāna, 1.9; Vāyu Purāna, 35. 9; Carakasanhitā, 6. 21), but different views have been held regarding his identity. According to the tradition preserved in the Harivansa Purana ( Parva 1, Chap. 29 ), in the dynasty of Kasa king Dhanva had a son named Dhanvantari who is said to be an incarnation of divine physician of that name on account his knowledge of mcdical lore. In the same line of kings Divodāsa came two generations after, and it is interesting to note that in the beginning of Susrutasanhita Susruta and other sages are described as being instructed in medical lorc by Divodása Dhanvantari, the king of Banaras (vide-Handiqui, Yašastilaka and Indian Cultura, p. 460).
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