Bhela Samhita (IAST: Bhela-saṃhitā, "Compendium of Bhela") is aSanskrit-language medical text from ancient India. It is known from an incomplete c. 1650 CE manuscript kept at theSarasvati Mahal Library inThanjavur, and a c. 9th century fragment found atTuyoq. 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 sageAtreya and his pupil Bhela, the author of the text. It shows many similarities with theCharaka Samhita, another text of the Atreya school, but it also shows some similarities with theSushruta Samhita of the Dhanavantri school.

The text is primarily in form of a dialogue between the sageAtreya^[a] and his pupil Bhela (also called Bheḍa). However, several other people also talk to Atreya in the text, including:^[1]

• the royal sageNagnajit, who asks Atreya questions about detecting poison in food
• Gurdalu Bhekin, who asks Atreya about medical topography
• Sushrotar Medhavin, who describes the treatment of the dosha-related disorders
• Several sages (including Khandakapya and Maitreya) talk to Atreya on the topic of tastes

In the text, the dialogue between Nagnajit and Atreya takes place during Atreya's visit toGandhara.^[1] 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.^[2]

Multiple sources, including the Thanjavur version of theBhela Samhita mention Bhela as a pupil of the ancient sage Atreya. Plus, Bhela is mentioned in ancient texts such as theBower Manuscript. This suggests that Bhela was regarded as a medical authority in the ancient period.^[3]

Modern scholars date the Thanjavur manuscript to c. 1650, and theBhela Samhita version represented by this manuscript was probably completed in the 7th century CE or later, as suggested by internal evidences.^[4] Unlike theCharaka Samhita and theSushruta Samhita, it has not been revised by later authors.^[1]

Tisata'sChikitsa-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 theBhela 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 inJvara-samuchchaya, whose oldest manuscript dates to 924 CE.^[3]

Sodhala'sGada-nigraha (c. 1200 CE) describes the formula for a medicine calleddhanvantara-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 ofBhela Samhita existed around 1200 CE.^[5]

An earlier form of the text probably developed sometime during 400-750 CE. TheBhela Samhita refers to several practices that originated in the Gupta period, such as chanda-karman and the worship of Shiva on a cremation ground.^[4] The originalBhela Samhita was not identical with the Thanjavur text, as suggested by several quotations. For example, on the topic of applyingenema to children, theKaashyapa-samhita (possibly c. 7th century^[6]) attributes an opinion to Bhela which disagrees with the Thanjavur text.^[3]

Bhela's text is probably not much earlier than theSushruta Samhita.^[4] While theCharaka Samhita refers to theBhela Samhita,^[7] the Thanjavur version was probably composed after Dṛḍhabala redacted the present-day version ofCharaka Samhita.^[4]

The Bower Manuscript attributes three gruels to Bhela. Eleven more prescriptions mentioned in the Bower Manuscript also appear in the Thanjavur manuscript ofBhela Samhita, although not attributed to Bhela; these may have derived from earlier works that are now lost.^[3]

Bhela Samhita is a medical treatise that primarily deals withinternal medicine (kaya-chikitsa). The text mainly consists ofshloka verses inanuṣṭubh metre, and only theSharira-sthana part contains prose passages.^[8]

TheSutra-sthana section of the text lists its contents as follows:^[8]

Some features of the text include:^[9]

• It names four categories of living beings:placentals,oviparous,germinating, and moisture-born (svedaja).^[10]
• It states that the main task of a physician (kaya-chikitsaka) is to treat the disoders of the "digestive fire" (kaya-agni), which is located in the abdomen, and whose size depends on the body size of the animal^[11]
• Its list of internal and external organs differs slightly from theCharaka Samhita, and it names therasa (nutritive fluid) as the most important constituent of the body.^[12] Its description of the heart is similar to that of theSushruta Samhita,^[9] and it states that according to Parashara, the heart is the first part of the embryo to develop.^[11] It also discusses other concepts inphysiology, such as 8 types ofsweat.^[9]
• It contains general advice regarding diet. For example, it describes 12 types of wholesome food articles; advises people against drinking water before or during a meal; and advises against eating a fish calledchilichima in combination with milk.^[9]
• It states that the mental state of the parents during the sexual intercourse determines the nature (guṇa -satvika,rajasa, ortamasa) of a child.^[11]
• It discusses a wide range of disorders. Examples include various types ofdiarrhea (including the ones caused by fear and grief),;^[13] fainting and sleep-related disorders, includinghypersomnia andinsomnia etc.^[14]
• It discusses a wide range of causes of the disorders, such as abnormalities during pregnancy;constipation;bile; improper administration ofemetics andlaxatives, five causes of baldness and grey hair etc.^[15]
• It describes 20 kind ofparasites (krmi).^[11] It describes rainy season as dangerous, stating that there is a high incidence of disease during it.^[9]
• It rejects the claim that supernatural beings causeepilepsy, and instead states that an epilepsy attack is caused when one or moredoshas obstruct the veins leading from the heart to the mind.^[11]
• It rejects the claim that supernatural beings causeinsanity,^[11] instead attributing it to a gradual process in which the doshas progressively affect the various parts of the mind, including themanas, thechitta and thebuddhi. It also discusses othermental disorders that may develop into instanity.^[13]
• It describes many drug formulae andtherapeutic rules.^[14] It also mentions religious elements while describing treatment of fevers, such as invoking of deities likeVishnu andShiva, and chanting ofVedas mantras. It also discusses fevers in animals other than humans.^[12]
• It mentionsspirit possession (bhutonmada) while discussing insanity, but does not give much attention to the topic. It states that the physicians should focus on prescribing drugs, and the religious treatment should be left toexorcists (bhuta-vaidya orbhuta-chikitsaka).^[16]
• It lists 16 deities that preside over the functions of the body and the mind:Agni,Prithvi,Apah,Akasha,Vayu, Vidyut,Parjanya,Indra,Gandharva,Mrtyu,Aditya,Chandramas,Tvastar,Vishnu,Prajapati, andBrahma. This list does not match with a similar list in theCharaka Samhita.^[12]
• It discusses thetransmigration of the soul.^[12]

TheCharaka Samhita refers toBhela Samhita,^[7] and the two texts are similar in many ways:^[8]

• They agree on several topics, suggesting that they both belong to theAtreya school.^[7]
• The name of the sections (sthanas) and the number of chapters in each section is exactly same.^[8]
• Several chapters in the two texts have same or similar names.^[1]
• The chapters in both texts begin in same way.^[8]
• Both texts (as well as theSushruta Samhita) feature discussions among sages. For example:^[1]
  • Both texts feature a discussion between sages on the topic of tastes, which takes place in the Chaitra-ratha forest. In both cases, Atreya rejects seven different opinions and expresses what he calls the correct view. Unlike theBhela-sahita, theCharaka Samhita attributes these seven opinions to particular persons.^[1]
  • Both texts feature a discussion on which part of theembryo develops first: the views expressed in theBhela-sahita and theCharaka Samhita are very similar, and disagree with the view of theSushruta Samhita.^[1]

However, theBhela Samhita also differs from theCharaka Samhita in several ways:

• It is more concise and uses simpler language than theCharaka Samhita.^[8]
• Its chapters end differently, with the phraseity āha bhagavān Ātreyaḥ.^[1]
• While some of the content in the two texts is similar, there are substantial differences. For example, theVimana-sthana sections of the two texts differs considerably.^[17]
• It contains considerable similarities with the Dhanavantri school represented by theSushruta Samhita.^[18]

Only one pre-modern manuscript ofBhela Samhita with substantial content is known. It is kept at theSarasvati Mahal Library inThanjavur, and several copies of this manuscripts have been made,^[8] such as the one at theIndia Office Library.^[19] 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.^[8]

A fragment ofBhela Samhita survives as one page from a paper manuscript found atTuyoq, dated to c. 9th century. It was discovered by IndologistHeinrich Lüders among a collection of manuscripts brought to Europe by archaeologistAlbert von Le Coq.^[8] It contains parts of theNidana-sthana Chapter 1 and theVimana-sthana chapter 1.^[17]

The surviving text known from the Thanjavur manuscript appears to be different from the original text that must have once existed.^[1] 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.^[5]

According to Lüders the Tuyoq fragment represents a more original version of the text. TheNidana-sthana section of both theBhela Samhita and theCharaka Samhita discuss eight major diseases, seven of which are same. The Thanjavur manuscript ofBhela Samhita discusses thekāsa disease instead of the 'rakta-pitta disease discussed in theCharaka Samhita. However, the Tuyoq fragment discussesrakta-pitta instead ofkāsa.^[17]

Several editions of the text have been published, all based on the Thanjavur manuscript:

• Edited byMahamahopadhyaya Ananta-krishna Shastri and Asutosh Mookerjee; published by the University of Calcutta (1921). Shastri was a scholar of Sanskrit, but not of Ayurveda. He corrected some grammatical mistakes in the original text, but omitted some portions of the manuscript.^[20]
• Edited byVaidya Girija-dayal Shukla; published by the Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi (1959). This edition was apparently based on the Calcutta edition, and not the original manuscript.^[21]
• Edited byVaidya Visharada V.S. Venkata-subramanya Sastry andVaidya Visharada C. Rajarajeswara Sarma; published by the Literary Research Unit of the Sarasvati Mahal Library / Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (1977). Thiscritical edition is based on a fresh study of the manuscript, and corrects several mistakes in the earlier editions.^[19]
• Edited by Priyavrat Sharma with English translation and commentary by K.H. Krishnamurthy published by Chaukhambha Visvabharati (2000)

A number of historical Indian texts on medicine quote from or refer to theBhela Samhita, including the text of theBower Manuscript and theCharaka Samhita.Bhela Samhita is one of the sources for the Persian-language textMa'din al-Shifa (1512), andIbn Sina may have also been aware of it. TheTibetan tradition refers to Bhela as a medical authority by the name Gzins-can.^[22]

• The Bhela Samhita (1921), University of Calcutta
• Transcription of Bhela-samhita by Tsutomu Yamashita, based on the 1977 edition of the Sarasvati Mahal Library Literary Research Unit
• Vitus Angermeier (2022-12-19)."Epidemiology in the Bhelasaṃhitā: The Chapter on Distinctions According to Land and People". Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.doi:10.17613/wn0a-rb05. Retrieved2023-02-20.

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