Sridhanvantaryastottarasatam-108 Divine Names of Dhanvantari

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This book is an attempt to provide a faithful translation and word by word analysis of the Dhanvantari Ashottarashatam, the 108 names of Lord Dhanvanthari, which is part of the Brahmanandopanishat. The hymns for meditation on the divine form has also been compiled along with the procedure for worshipping and invoking the grace of Lord Dhanvanthari. Lord Dhanvanthari is the presiding deity of Ayurveda and worshipped for relief from diseases and for obtaining a long and healthy life.

Dr. P. Ram Manohar, M.D. (Ayu.), is an Ayurveda Physician and Pharmacologist, Director of Research with Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore, India. He is associated with several Ayurveda research projects in India, Europe and the USA. Member of the Central Council of Indian Medicine and other Committees of the Dept. of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of India and also History of Science, Indian National Science Academy. He has made research visits to UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, Austria and Netherlands and has presented and published papers in India and abroad.

Dhanvantari, the God of Medicine, the presiding deity of Ayurveda is worshipped throughout the country for relief from diseases. There are temples of worship dedicated to Lord Dhanvantari and interestingly enough these temples are located in South India, especially Kerala. Even in the absence of temples, Vaidyas in other parts of India worship idols and images of Lord Dhanvantari. Statues of Lord Dhanvantari are also seen in the courtyards of many important institutions. In other words, the status of Lord Dhanvantari as the divine healer and custodian of Ayurvedic knowledge is universally accepted by the Ayurvedic community today. The reasons for absence of shrines of Dhanvantari in Northern parts of India are unknown and remain a subject of speculation and further studies.

Even more surprisingly, the classical Ayurvedic texts do not envision Dhanvantari as the God of Medicine. Dhanvantari is the surgeon par excellence who established and propagated the branch of surgery along with other branches. His teachings form the basis of the Ayurvedic text book on surgery, known as Susruta Samhita , which was codified by his disciple Susruta. Dhanvantari does proclaim his divinity in one instance in this text and characterizes himself as the physician of the Gods. Yet, in the Susruta Samhita, he is the King of Kasi, Divodasa Dhanvantari. In the Caraka Samhita, which represents the medical school of Ayurveda, there is passing mention of the tradition of the surgical school of Dhanvantari.

The concept of the divinity of Dhanvantari remains in a seed form in the Susruta Samhita, and finds full expression in the Puranic lore. It is interesting to note that Dhanvantari is also recognized as the King of Kasi in Puranic literature. For example, the Bhagavata Purana lists the lineage of Dhanvantari as the King of Kasi. In the Puranas, Dhanvantari is depicted as an incarnation of Lord who emerged with the pot of nectar in his hand when the milky ocean was churned by Gods and Demons. It is pertinent to note that the story of the churning of the milky ocean is mentioned in the classical Ayurvedic literature. However, the context is the emergence of poison during the process of churning. It is quite surprising that Dhanvantari does not find mention in any of these references. Louis H Gray writes in the Journal of American Oriental Society' that the earliest known allusion to him (Dhanvantari) appears to be Kausika Sutra 74.6, which prescribes that a portion of the daily offering be placed in the water holder for Dhanvantari. He also quotes references from Asvalayana Grhyasutra and Manava Grhyasutra. But all these references put together fails to paint a clear picture of the story of the emergence of Dhanvantari as a deity in the cultural tradition of India. In classical Ayurveda, lndra is the divine source of Ayurveda from whom the Asvinis received the knowledge. lndra himself obtained the knowledge of Ayurveda from Asvinis who were taught by Prajapati. Ultimately, Brahma is the source spring of all Ayurvedic knowledge. And Brahma is the mentor of Prajapati. These divinities are however, not objects of worship in the classical texts. In Vagbhata's works, the unprecedented physician or Apurva Vaidya is invoked at the very beginning. in the Astanga Sangraha, Buddha is also invoked by name in some readings of the original manuscripts. Buddha was also hailed as the Bhaisajya Guru or Teacher of Physicians even as Buddhism spread from India to neighboring countries. It is intriguing that there is a live tradition of worship of Lord Dhanvantari in actual practice today, which does not seem to have been promoted by the classical textual tradition of Ayurveda. In all likelihood, this tradition of worship has its origins in the Puranic Lore. In the classical texts, the divinities like Brahma and lndra seem to represent levels of consciousness that can be accessed through meditation. According to the Caraka Samhita, the knowledge of Ayurveda was discovered through a process of meditation with the eye of inner knowledge. An altered perception of reality can be attained in elevated states of consciousness and in the early period, meditation was the predominant tool used for this purpose. Later on, a need was felt for worshipping a concrete form, an idol, and Lord Dhanvantari as the incarnation of Visnu became accepted as the God of Ayurveda or medicine.

Lord Dhanvantari inspires the tradition of healing in two ways. In his role as the King of Kasi, he exemplifies the excellence that can be achieved by a physician on the face of this earth and as the incarnation of Lord Visnu, he is the divine healer who can be invoked and awakened in one's own consciousness (the milky ocean). The serpent King Vasuki is the power of Kundalini and the Manthara mountain is the vertebral column, The Gods and Demons are but the positive and negative tendencies of the human mind. Thus, Dhanvantari is the divinity that heals our beings as he emerges in our consciousness marking the culmination of a process of mental purification through rigorous spiritual practices. Worshipping the physical form of Lord Dhanvantari has thus become the means to awaken the wisdom of Ayurveda in physicians and the innate healing powers of the body in other human beings. This work elucidates a simple method of worshipping and propitiating Lord Dhanvantari by meditating upon his divine form and chanting 108 names depicting his powers. We will leave it to the historians to debate about the exact origins of the tradition of worshipping Lord Dhanvantari as the God of Medicine. We can discern three phases in the tradition of Ayurveda. First of all, we have in the classical texts, the use of meditation as tool to reach the abode of lndra (higher state of one's own mind). In the following centuries, invocation of the unprecedented physician, alluding to Buddha as the Bhaisajya Guru became the key to enter higher states of awareness and in a much later period, we see the emergence of the tradition of worship of Lord Dhanvantari as the God of Medicine, which is the subject matter of the Puranic literature. In other words, the tools used for transforming one's consciousness have differed from time to time. Worship of Lord Dhanvantari is one such tool that has been preserved by tradition for posterity.

**Contents and Sample Pages**