समन्तभद्र स्वामी का आयुर्वेद - विषयक कर्तृत्व
By आचार्य राजकुमार जैन
Summary
Based solely on the provided text, the article discusses the Ayurvedic contributions of Samantabhadra Swami, a highly revered and multifaceted Jain acharya. He was a great logician, scholar of Jain philosophy, and a strict observer of monastic conduct. The text establishes his expertise in Ayurveda through a self-descriptive verse where he includes the title "Bhishag" (physician) among his many accolades, such as teacher, poet, and master of logic. This verse was presented in a royal court, and the text argues that such claims had to be substantiated, proving his medical knowledge. Further evidence is found in his stotra (hymn) compositions, where he compares the Tirthankaras Shambhav and Shitalnath to skilled physicians who cure the spiritual diseases of worldly desire, demonstrating his familiarity with medical terminology and procedures. The article notes that while no Ayurvedic work by Samantabhadra is currently available, two later sources attest to his authorship. The 9th-century scholar Ugraditya, in his work "Kalyanakarakam," explicitly states that he composed his text by following Samantabhadra's comprehensive work on Ashtanga Vaidyak (eight branches of Ayurveda). Additionally, Vardhaman Parshvanath Shakhai, in the preface to the same text, mentions that Samantabhadra authored a medical treatise called "Siddhanta Rasayana Kalpa," which was 18,000 shlokas in length. This text is now lost, but a few thousand shlokas are said to survive in fragments. A key feature of this lost work was its adherence to the principle of ahimsa (non-violence) in its medicinal formulations. It also uniquely employed Jain philosophical terms and numerical codes, such as using the symbol of a Tirthankara (e.g., "Kesari" for the 24th Tirthankara Mahavira) to denote specific quantities of ingredients. The text concludes that Samantabhadra's work was part
Conclusion
The document establishes that Ācārya Samantabhadra was not only a towering figure in Jain logic, philosophy, and devotion but also a recognized expert in Āyurveda, as evidenced by his self-identification as a *bhiṣak* (physician) and his use of medical metaphors in hymns. The most significant outcome is the confirmation that he authored a substantial Āyurvedic text, the *Siddhānta Rasāyaṇa Kalpa*, an 18,000-verse work now lost. Its legacy endures through its unique, non-violent approach to medicine, which replaced animal-derived ingredients with Jain ethical alternatives and employed a coded numerical system based on Tīrthaṅkara symbols. This implies that Jain monastic scholarship actively integrated and adapted secular sciences like Āyurveda, creating a distinct, dharma-aligned medical tradition. The loss of this text represents a major gap in our understanding of Jain contributions