| Bhela Samhita | |
| Author: | Bhela |
| Title Orig: | भेलसंहिता |
| Orig Lang Code: | sa |
| Translator: | K.H. Krishnamurthy |
| Country: | Ancient India |
| Language: | Sanskrit |
| Subject: | Internal medicine |
| Genre: | Samhita |
| Pub Date: | c. 7th century CE or later |
| Native Wikisource: | भेलसंहिता |
Bhela Samhita (IAST: Bhela-saṃhitā, "Compendium of Bhela") is a Sanskrit-language medical text from ancient India. It is known from an incomplete c. 1650 CE manuscript kept at the Sarasvati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, and a c. 9th century fragment found at Tuyoq. Quotations in other works suggest that an older version of the text, possibly composed during 400-750 CE, existed.
Much of the text is in form of a dialogue between sage Atreya and his pupil Bhela, the author of the text. It shows many similarities with the Charaka Samhita, another text of the Atreya school, but it also shows some similarities with the Sushruta Samhita of the Dhanavantri school.
The text is primarily in form of a dialogue between the sage Atreya and his pupil Bhela (also called Bheḍa). However, several other people also talk to Atreya in the text, including:
In the text, the dialogue between Nagnajit and Atreya takes place during Atreya's visit to Gandhara. Based on the text's mention of Gandhara, some scholars theorize that Bhela was from Gandhara. However, R.S. Singh theorizes that Bhela was from western India, based on an analysis of vegetables used for preparing medicines mentioned in the text.
Multiple sources, including the Thanjavur version of the Bhela Samhita mention Bhela as a pupil of the ancient sage Atreya. Plus, Bhela is mentioned in ancient texts such as the Bower Manuscript. This suggests that Bhela was regarded as a medical authority in the ancient period.
Modern scholars date the Thanjavur manuscript to c. 1650, and the Bhela Samhita version represented by this manuscript was probably completed in the 7th century CE or later, as suggested by internal evidences. Unlike the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, it has not been revised by later authors.
Tisata's Chikitsa-kalika (10th century) contains a recipe attributed to Bhela; this recipe is very similar to the recipe described in the Thanjavur manuscript, although the wording is somewhat different. This suggest that the Bhela Samhita text represented by the Thanjavur manuscript was not very different from the one known to Tisata in the 10th century. The Thanjavur version contains several quotes attributed to Bhela in Jvara-samuchchaya, whose oldest manuscript dates to 924 CE.
Sodhala's Gada-nigraha (c. 1200 CE) describes the formula for a medicine called dhanvantara-ghrta, attributing it to Bhela; the Thanjavur manuscript refers to this medicine twice, but does not provide the actual formula. This suggests that a more complete version of Bhela Samhita existed around 1200 CE.
An earlier form of the text probably developed sometime during 400-750 CE. The Bhela Samhita refers to several practices that originated in the Gupta period, such as chanda-karman and the worship of Shiva on a cremation ground. The original Bhela Samhita was not identical with the Thanjavur text, as suggested by several quotations. For example, on the topic of applying enema to children, the Kaashyapa-samhita (possibly c. 7th century) attributes an opinion to Bhela which disagrees with the Thanjavur text.
Bhela's text is probably not much earlier than the Sushruta Samhita. While the Charaka Samhita refers to the Bhela Samhita, the Thanjavur version was probably composed after Dṛḍhabala redacted the present-day version of Charaka Samhita.
The Bower Manuscript attributes three gruels to Bhela. Eleven more prescriptions mentioned in the Bower Manuscript also appear in the Thanjavur manuscript of Bhela Samhita, although not attributed to Bhela; these may have derived from earlier works that are now lost.
Bhela Samhita is a medical treatise that primarily deals with internal medicine (kaya-chikitsa). The text mainly consists of shloka verses in anuṣṭubh metre, and only the Sharira-sthana part contains prose passages.
The Sutra-sthana section of the text lists its contents as follows:
| Section (sthana) | Number of chapters | Chapters surviving (partial or complete) in the Thanjavur manuscript | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sutra-sthana | 30 | 4-23, 25-28 | |
| Nidana-sthana | 8 | 2-8 | |
| Vimana-sthana | 8 | 1, 3-6 | |
| Sharira-sthana | 8 | 2-8 | |
| Indriya-sthana | 12 | 1-12 | |
| Chikitsa-sthana | 30 | 1-28 | |
| Kalpa-sthana | 12 | 1, 3-9 | |
| Siddhi-sthana | 12 | 1-2, 4-8 |
Some features of the text include:
The Charaka Samhita refers to Bhela Samhita, and the two texts are similar in many ways:
However, the Bhela Samhita also differs from the Charaka Samhita in several ways:
Only one pre-modern manuscript of Bhela Samhita with substantial content is known. It is kept at the Sarasvati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, and several copies of this manuscripts have been made, such as the one at the India Office Library. The Thanjavur manuscript is missing several chapters or portions of chapters, and the surviving chapters are not arranged in the proper order. It has several scribal errors, and the Sanskrit text is often grammatically incorrect. Several other copies of this manuscript have been prepared.
A fragment of Bhela Samhita survives as one page from a paper manuscript found at Tuyoq, dated to c. 9th century. It was discovered by Indologist Heinrich Lüders among a collection of manuscripts brought to Europe by archaeologist Albert von Le Coq. It contains parts of the Nidana-sthana Chapter 1 and the Vimana-sthana chapter 1.
The surviving text known from the Thanjavur manuscript appears to be different from the original text that must have once existed. This can be inferred from the fact that later authors often quote Bhela, but only a few of these quotations are present (some partially) in the Thanjavur manuscript text.
According to Lüders the Tuyoq fragment represents a more original version of the text. The Nidana-sthana section of both the Bhela Samhita and the Charaka Samhita discuss eight major diseases, seven of which are same. The Thanjavur manuscript of Bhela Samhita discusses the kāsa disease instead of the 'rakta-pitta disease discussed in the Charaka Samhita. However, the Tuyoq fragment discusses rakta-pitta instead of kāsa.
Several editions of the text have been published, all based on the Thanjavur manuscript:
A number of historical Indian texts on medicine quote from or refer to the Bhela Samhita, including the text of the Bower Manuscript and the Charaka Samhita. Bhela Samhita is one of the sources for the Persian-language text Ma'din al-Shifa (1512), and Ibn Sina may have also been aware of it. The Tibetan tradition refers to Bhela as a medical authority by the name Gzins-can.