Charaka Samhita. Part I, Chapter 15 / Translation from Sanskrit, Introductory Article and Commentaries by D. Burba

This publication presents the first Ukrainian translation of the fifteenth chapter of the first part of the fundamental Sanskrit treatise on Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) Charaka Samhita. (For previous chapters, see 2017 issues of The World of the Orient and No. 2, 3 for this year.) As it exists today, this text is thought to have arisen in the 1st century CE. The translation is of great importance for acquaintance of the Ukrainian readers with medical conceptions and life of Ancient India. The fifteenth chapter deals with such topics as (1) building a hospital, equipping it with all an armamentarium and also personnel recruitment, and (2) procedures for cleansing a gastrointestinal tract with emetic and purgative potions. A physician must be able to determine whether the procedure was successful and to recognize possible complications. The patient’s diet for a week after the procedure is described in detail. The hospital staff must include pharmacists, cooks, bath attendants, etc. and “skilled singers, musicians, reciters of verses, stories, legends, history and mythology”. So “only those, who are kings or of kingly circumstance; or men of abundant wealth can be given the purgation procedure in this manner”. Nevertheless, if a poor man, afflicted with an ailment, has need of purification, he should take whatever drugs are within his reach. Quite interesting is the author’s attempt to refute the idea that if treatment both well-administered and ill-administered produces good or ill effects indeterminately, then knowledge and ignorance cease to have any distinction between them. The author responses that true knowledge is flawless and defects arise only from incomplete mastery of knowledge.