Indian Antiquary Vol 28

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 88

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCE, 1899.
is supposed to be caused by the spear of the god Rudra. The colour of a substance is of no small importance in determining its use as a medicine. Thus turmeric is used to cure jaundice. Red, the colour of life-blood and health, is the natural colour of many amulets used to secure long life and health. A black plant is recommended for the care of white leprosy. But even the name of a substance was frequently a reason for ascribing to it healing power. One of the most powerful medicinal or magic plants is called in Sanskrit apám drga (achyranthes aspera), and it owes its supposed power essentially to its etymological connection with the verb " a pamarj," meaning "to wipe away," and in Hindu charms the plant is constantly implored to wipe away disease, to wipe out the demons and wizards, to wipe off sins and evils of all kinds To wipe a disease away is a very common and a very natural means of getting rid of it.
This seems to be the meaning also of that ancient method of curing disease by the laying on of hands, which is already mentioned in the Rig Veda, though it is also possible that it was intended to press the disease down by means of the hands. For we read in one charm of the Rig-Véda : -
"Down bloweth the wind, down burneth the sun, the cloud (or cow) is milked down. wards - down shall go thy ailment.
“ Beneficent is this one hand, more beneficent is this other hand - this one contains all medicines; the other one is wholesome by its touch."
From another charm, however, it wonld seem as if the laying on of bands had only been intended as a means of establishing a connection between the patient and the magician, whose imprecations could have effect only on the person with whom he was actually in touch. In the same way the priest had to touch the person for whom he was offering prayers and sacrifices to the gods. The following charm of the Rig Veda seems to suggest such an interpretation :
" With these two hands, which have ten branches (the fingers), and which eure from disease, - the tongue being at the same time the leader of speech, do I touch thee."
There is a striking similarity between this ancient Hindu custom and the moder practices of faith-healing in which, after all, prayer bas merely been substituted for the ancient charms.
The two chief resources of medical witchcraft, then, are charms (spells, imprecations) and magic rites, the chief object of which is to bring the body into contact with some supposed . curative substance. These substances are frequently applied in the shape of amulets or talismans. There is, in India, no trace of a belief in spirits dwelling in the amulets. Their power is merely based on the power to destroy evil influences and demons, possessed by the heb or tree or mineral from which the amulet is derived.
The most ancient collection of charms in India is that found in the Atharva-Vêda, and we possess very ancient ritual books which contain detailed accounts of magic rites used in connection with the charms of the Atharva-Vêda.3 These charms bave very much in common with those of other nations. More especially, numerous coincidences have been pointed out between Teutonic charms and those of the Atharva-Vêda. In the medical charms of the Hindus, the diseases are always personified. It is only our way of speaking when we say that diseases are supposed to be caused by demons. As a matter of fact, the diseases themselves are addressed as personal and demoniacal beings. Thus Fever - "the king of diseases," as it is called in the Susruta, the great work on Hindu medicine - is addressed with such words as : " Thou that makest all men sallow, inflaming them like a searing fire, even now, O Fever, thou shalt become void of strength : do thou now go away down, aye, into the depths! The Fever that is spotted, covered with spots, like reddish sediment, him thou, O plant of unremitting potency, drive away down below!" Here the plant Kushtba (costus speciosus) is addressed, which was
See Hymns of the Atharva Veda, together with Eetracts from the Ritual Books and the Commentaries, translated by M. Bloomfield. (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 12, 1897.) I am indebted to Professor Bloomfield's translation for most of tho extract: given below.