Sanatana Dharma - Aka Hinduism (1st Bin)

[Bodhi]

1. Each of the four books deals with systematizing and perfecting a pre-existing body of knowledge. YS that of yoga, CS that of Ayurveda, MB that of pANini grammar, and NS that of sAmaveda ritual specifications.



2. sUtra genre: each of the books is tightly connected with the sUtra-s. Of course yoga-sUtra is one of the most pristine examples of the sUtra genre, NS is also written in the sUtra-s. mahAbhAShya, though written in prose and verse, is tightly linked with the sUtra-s, being a discussion on the sUtra-s of kAtyAyana and pANini anyways. charaka saMhitA while in verse, names its opening section as the “sUtra-sthAna”, which is the largest of all the sections, spanning almost one-fourth of the whole book, in laying out the fundamentals of Ayurveda for the rest of the 3-fourth book.



3. The foundational concepts of all the works are fascinatingly octal!

Yoga-sUtra lays down the famous Eight-fold process of yoga, the aShTA~Nga-yoga comprising of the eight essential limbs of yama-niyama-Asana-prANAyAma-pratyAhAra-dhAraNA-dhyAna and samAdhi.



Ayurveda deals with the same number of parts, it’s own aShTA~Nga including the kAyA (general medicine), shalya (surgery), shAlakya (supraclavical, ENT and Ophthalmology), Agadtantra (toxicology), kaumAra (pediatrics and obstetrics), bhUta (psychiatry and demonology), rasAyana (rejuvenation and healing), and bAjIkaraNa (fertility therapy and virilification). While charaka saMhitA deals with only some of these aspects, even then CS is also divided exactly into 8 books or sthAna-s: sUtra (fundamental concepts), nidAna (diagnosis, pathogenesis and general patho-physiology), vimAna (chemical & physiological processes, clinical procedures, infections and epidemics), sharIra (anatomy and embryology), indriya (symptomatology and prognosis), chikitsA (prescriptions and some drug formulations), kalpa (pharmacy proper), and finally the siddhi (evacuation and cleansing procedures). Very interestingly, three of these eight sthAna-s -- the books of nidAna, vimAna and sharIra -- are further sub-divided into exactly eight adhyAya-s or chapters.



The mahAbhAShya is anyways based on pANini’s legendary “Eight-Chapters”, the aShTAdhyAyI, and follows exactly the same structure and sequence of those Eight chapters, dividing each into four pAda-s (like the four-pAda-s of yoga-sUtra).



Now, nidAna-sUtra may appear to be an outlier at the outset on this point, as it does not have eight but ten pra-pAThaka-s. Interestingly however, an annotated, reorganized and supplemented work heavily drawing from and following nidAna-sUtra, called upanidAna-sUtra or the Little nidAna-sUtra, of an unknown date but being quite ancient and authoritative, brings the body of knowledge back to an Eight-chaptered organization!



4. Prof. Surendranath Dasgupta of Calcutta Univ. had already shown many decades back the striking similarity in the opening statements of both YS and MB. We can take that observation even further, all the four works begin without any elaborate ma~NgalAcharaNa or traditional invoking, rather simply with “atha”. YS: “atha yogAnushAsanam”, MB: “atha shabdAnushAsanam”, NS: “atha nidAna sUtram”, and CS: “athAto dIrgha-jIvitIyam-adhyAyam vyAkhyAsyAmaH”. This wonderful beginning “atha” literally means, “Now Then, Therefore…”, and signifies the ultimate authority that the author has on the subject matter. Commentators add that this also means both a ma~NgalAcharaNa, the auspicious beginning, as well as a pre-qualification for the reader or student; that only someone who has done the needed preparatory groundwork can be initiated with a “Now Then, Therefore...”



5. Proximity to the veda-s. While we shall show this in more detail subsequently, at present suffices to say that MB fits in the vyAkaraNa vedA~Nga, CS, the first pillar of the Ayurveda is another vedA~Nga, NS is anyways one of the shrauta-sUtra of sAmaveda and that yoga is the very vidyA spoken of in the veda-s, is the claim of the yogi-s (although YS does not speak of or refers to the veda-s at all).



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