Note On Caraka Samhita And Buddhism

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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A note on the Caraka Samhita and Buddhism
Johannes Bronkhorst
115
In an article recently published in Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkya ("An atman by any other name: two non-Buddhist parallels to antarabhava", IBK 47(1), 1998, (5)-(11)), Robert Kritzer draws attention to some parallel passages in the Caraka Samhita and in several Buddhist texts, primarily the Abhidharmakosa Bhasya, concerning the intermediate being (antarabhava in the Buddhist texts) which supposedly links two succeeding bodies of one person in the course of transmigration. At the end of his article, while reflecting on the possibility of influence between these texts and on the direction such influence may have taken, Kritzer mentions my name in connection with "a number of points that may have been borrowed from Buddhism by the Caraka Samhita" This note is meant to present these points to public scrutiny. It must here be emphasised that these points struck me during a superficial reading of parts of the Caraka Samhita. In other words, this note does not in any way claim to be exhaustive.
1. The Satrasthana of the Caraka Samhita contains the following passage (CS, Sūtra 16.27-38):
jayante hetuvaiṣamyad visama dehadhātavaḥ/ hetüsāmyāt samās teṣām svabhavoparamaḥ sada //27// pravṛttihetur bhavanam na nirodhe 'sti karanam/ kecit tatrapi manyante hetum hetor avartanam //28// evam uktärtham ācāryam agniveŝo 'bhyabhāṣata/ svabhavoparame karma cikitsaprabhṛtasya kim //29// bhesajair visaman dhātün kan samikurute bhisak/ ka va cikitsa bhagavan kimartham va prayujyate //30// tac chişyavacanam śrutva vyajahara punarvasuḥ/ šrūyatām atra ya saumya yuktir drsta maharṣibhiḥ //31// na nasakaranabhavad bhavanam nasakaranam/ jñāyate nityagasyeva kalasyatyayakāraṇam //32// Sighragatväd yatha bhatas tatha bhavo vipadyate/ nirodhe karanam tasya nästi naivanyathakriya //33//