Abstract

Abstract

The presently available so called ‘Harita Samhita’ needs to be scrutinized for its originality given the references of ancient ‘Harit Samhita’ observed in the various commentaries. Sage Bhardwaj says that he had got the knowledge of Ayurveda from Indra. And later he imparted this knowledge to innumerable sages including the Atreya like seven prominent Rishis. Then Atreya had given it to the Rishi Harita. ‘Harita’ was one among the famous five disciples of the Lord Atreya. He learnt the Ayurveda from Lord Atreya Punarwasu along with four others namely Agnivesha, Bhela, Jatukarna and Ksharpani but it is not available now. In the book ‘Yoga Ratna Samucchaya ’ written by Chandrat, there are lot of references to Harita’s medicinal preparations. In the commentary “Vyakhyakusumavali” by Shrikanthadatta on ‘Siddha Yoga Samgraha ‘ of Vrinda, there are many quotations from ‘Harit Samhita’. Chakrapani, the commentator of Charak Samhita, had quoted ‘Harita’ at many places in his commentary ‘Ayurved Dipika’. Nischalkara had quoted ‘Harita’ many times in his keraliya commentary ‘Ratnaprabha’ on ‘Chakradutta’. Ayurvedic authors and commentators like Nischalkara, Shivdas Sen, Chakrapani Dutta etc of this era had quoted his work at many places in their commentaries. The original references related to different Chikitsa Yogas of ancient ‘Harit Samhita’ from various commentaries do not match with the references given in presently available ‘Harit Samhita’ in the market. Findings of the present study suggest that the presently available so called Harit Samhita, does not appear to be the original work of ancient Harita but of some other author.