It is amazing to know that during the regime of kings in Bharat, they established hospitals with beds and medical facilities for their citizens, including surgeons and a protocol in place—something our most advanced, modern-day, high-tech era rulers could not meet even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our ancient temples were not only treasure troves but also served as centers of learning, arts, music, and the preservation of Bharatiya culture, in addition to running hospitals. Gau mutra was used as medicine, and mentally ill individuals were treated.
This shows how visionary and knowledgeable our kings were. The Chola kings, who ruled around 1,100 years ago, took care of the people under their kingdom with unimaginable medical services. A cursory glance at an inscription found in a temple in Tamil Nadu sheds light on how the Chola (Chozha) kings had set up a 15-bed hospital with general physicians, surgeons, and other paramedics. The stone inscriptions found on the walls of Appan Venkatesa Perumal Temple at Thirumukkoodal near Kancheepuram district shed light on complete details of medical procedures, the salaries of doctors (in the form of paddy—proportionate to their work), the kinds of herbal medicines used, and the method of rationing food among inmates.
The comprehensive Tamil engravings on the granite wall of the temple, deemed to be one of the largest found so far in the Indian subcontinent, provide details of the medical center set up by Virarajendra Chola in 1069 AD at the confluence of the rivers Cheyyar, Vegavathi, and Paalar. The center had a doctor, a surgeon, two male nurses who brought herbs and firewood and prepared medicines, two female nurses who administered doses of medicines, fed the patients, and attended to cooking, a barber (hairdresser) to perform minor surgeries, a washerman, a potter, and a gatekeeper.
The 55-ft-long inscription has 33 lines running from top to bottom. According to S. Rajavelu, adjunct faculty member of the Department of History, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, and former epigraphist with ASI, who studied the engravings in the past, 98 percent of the engravings are in Tamil and the remaining 2 percent are in Grantha script. It sheds light on 19 herbal medicines used for treating common fever, lung diseases, and dropsy (an old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water in the body). He said, “It was established to provide medical care for the students and teachers of the Vedic school run by the temple, as well as the public. It is clear from the inscriptions that the temple funded both the school and the hospital from its earnings through its properties,” say the engravings.
Free treatments were given to students and teachers of the college, as well as temple staff. One of the inscriptions lists the kinds of medicines that were used at that time. In that list, the third one, Gomutra Haritaki, was prepared using Gau Mutra.
Veera Rajendra Deva (1063–1069 AD) was the son of the famous Chola emperor Rajendra (1014–1044 AD), who led a successful expedition to the Ganges valley and established a maritime empire comprising Kadaram (modern Kedah of Malaysia and adjoining areas) and Srivijaya (modern Sumatra). King Rajendra Chola also established diplomatic relations with Cambodia and China.
In Tamil Nadu, barbers are still considered to be experts and practitioners of traditional medicine, which they inherit from their fathers or elders in the family.
A tweet by Ethirajan Srinivasan @Ethirajans (in video format) states:
https://twitter.com/Ethirajans/status/1732049015314006057
The Thirumukkoodal inscription of Veera Rajendra
The Annual Report on Epigraphy notes how this specific medicine finds mention in the 67th verse of the 9th chapter of Charaka Samhita and in the 6th chapter of Sushruta Samhita. As per the latter, Gomutra Haritaki—the medicine prepared by soaking chebulic myrobalan, or Haritaki as it is known in Ayurveda, in Gau Mutra overnight—can cure internal piles. It was also used as a medicine for jaundice. Apart from this, the hospital also accommodated mentally ill people and provided them with medical aid, says Hindu Post.
“The hospital offered Ayurvedic-cum-Siddha medicine as it had references to medicinal plants,” said Rajavelu. He added that the inscriptions talked about an Athular Salai (hospital). Similar health facilities were functioning in Thiruvakkam near Kanchipuram, Thanjavur, and Srirangam. The 9th-century temple is being maintained by ASI, which plans to recreate the garden by planting herbs mentioned in the engravings.
