Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-8, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in Indian Systems of Curing Diseases and Introduction of Western Medicine Farhat Parveen Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim Univeristy, Aligarh (U.P.) India Abstract: The history of diseases in Colonial India In the district of Bihar and Patna, F. Buchanan has been dominated by many epidemics, finds about seven hundred families of Brahmans and communicable and non-communicable diseases. sixty Mohammadans who possessed some medical 12 Before the advent of western medicine or so called knowledge. Sometimes these Vaids were employed Tropical medicine, many indigenous systems were by the Rajas and other wealthy Zamindars.13 prevailed in the country. This chapter will focus on In the Rajasthan region practice of medicine was the prevalence of the indigenous systems of cure in basically in the hands of four classes of medical the 19th century colonial India. The chapter also men. (1)Vaids (2)Hakims (3)Attars or Pansaries focuses why people were confined to these systems of who were prescribed chemists (4)Ascetics who cure while we witness the emergence of western claimed to have power over diseases controlled by th 14 medicine precisely from the IInd quarter of 19 evil spirits. century. This is also argued that the methods of cure adopted by the people were deeply rooted in their There were traditional healers also who were religious and cultural beliefs. usually grocers, herbalists, priests’ exorcists, makers of charm-amulets, boil and wound experts, barber Before the advent of western medicine in India, surgeons village dais and village magicians who many indigenous systems of curing disease were in practiced Jhar-phoonk. There were Jarrahas also who used to heal wounds however medically their practice. Generally there were two systems of 15 1 2 medicines, the Ilm-ul-Tib. (Unani) and the Ayurved. treatment was awful. Their practitioners were known as Vaids and Tabibs Francis Buchanan, during his surveys in the (Hakim). Their methods of treatment were to Eastern region finds about 150 Jarrahas or Surgeon barbers who used to cup bleed and treat sores.16 diagnose the disease by reading pulse or examining 17 the urine of the patient. They had upright position The Folk Medicine practiced by the tribal in the society.3 These people followed the medical people of Assam, Bengal and Bihar, Orrisa, Madras, traditions created by Ibn Sina (Avicina)4Razes,5 Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra and Uttar Pradesh Charak6 and Sushruta7. was completely rational. The village Vaids and Hakims used to get their The medicine men would ask the patient about own herbal medicines which they used to prepare his dreams, manners of living and about any 8 and dispense themselves. The Vaids and Hakims sudden change. He further used to inquire about used many vegetable parts as drugs including roots, the different spirits in the laboratory procedures by stalk, Pith, leaves, flowers, thorns, juice, milk, oil, using winnowing fans, rice, leaves, oil lamps and seeds etc. and would prescribe for different defensive etc. These products were collected from forests with 18 great care. Camphor, rhubarb, musk, tamarind, amulets to wear. The poor people especially, nutmeg, cloves and sandal wood were also used. tribal people would assign the disease to the supernatural cause as-wrath of goddesses, evil Many admired and good physicians had their own 19 botanical gardens adjoining their houses. spirits, sorcery (Soul loss) witchcraft etc. Apart from vegetable products many earthly The poor people specially the tribal people products were also used as drugs.9 The medicines believed that different goddesses caused different were prepared with these products by different illnesses and so different offerings or sacrifices 10 methods and were prescribed in different forms. were offered to them. They would also give instructions about diets as use 1. Sitala caused small pox; to her were offered of honey, milk, gur and radish etc, and would also cloves, bitternuts, coconuts & Hom (fire suggest not taking two foods of opposite effects sacrifices). together.11 Inhalations and heat applications were 2. Durga caused cholera; to her were offered a red also common in the treatment done by Vaids and flag and an iron tripod along with hom. At some Hakims. place goats were also sacrificed. 3. Jawala caused fever; to her was offered hom. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 320 Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-8, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in 4. Purva caused din sanity; to her was offered hom. towards pure water supply and improper sanitation 5. Parwati caused severe headache; to her was caused serious inconvenience to them. offered hom.20 It is quite interesting to note that in the Generally the village healers as magicians, snake states of Northern India, Opium28 was used for bite curers and others like thorn pullers boil curing malaria. Royal Commission on opium, healers and bone setters did not depend on their inquired about its use. The physicians of western earnings through healing to run their households. medicine suggested that due to the presence of They had their own vocations. It is found that narcotine, opium could be used to treat malaria. In 21 generally they were farmers and cultivators. South India decoction of the leaves of holy basil, Sometimes they were nomads also. (Justeia adhatoda) margossa tree (Cocculus All these systems including house hold Cordifolius) were used by the native villagers, in the remedies were quite prevalent in the villages of treatment of malaria. India. The Report of Health Survey and Development Sometimes seven bedbugs, seven betel leaves, Committee say: seven peppers and seven cloves were pounded These systems however exercised not merely together and were given to the patient for curing over the illiterate masses but over malaria. Among the tribal people it was believed considerable sections of the intelligentsia. We that malaria was caused by evil spirits. But often have also to recognize that treatment by the Malaria was out recorded separately from other practitioners of these systems was said to be fevers. In 19th century the extensive irrigation canal cheap and it was claimed that the empirical construction and labor migration gave opportunities knowledge that had been accumulated over for mosquito to bread the rural environment centuries has resulted in a fund of subjected to malaria fever frequently in some experience of the properties and empirical particular areas. use of minerals herbs and plants, which is For smallpox Devi Sitala was held responsible, of some value.22 and she was worshiped by the people of Eastern India. Even today people worship Mata Sitala. Apart from such rational measures, the village Smallpox inoculation had been a religious ritual for healers would use some herbs and animal products many people. It had its own practitioners and for the treatments of the diseases caused by natural Tikadars in eastern India,29 who would come from factors. We may call it tribal or magico-religious Banaras, Brindaban and Allahabad, but many other medicine as tribal people had gathered such castes were also involved as Malies and Sinduries knowledge from the ancient treatises. O.P. Jaggi in in Northern India and Napits in Dacaa. his work ‘Folk Medicine in India’ has given Certain classes in India especially cow herders, detailed information about the use of the herbs and shepherds, and many others used to collect and other substances for the treatment of the diseases preserve the dry scabs of the pustules from the by the tribal people.23 He has also discussed in animals. They would place a little of it on the fore detail about the diagnosis, causation and treatment of arm, and puncture the skin with the needle. Through the diseases. this inoculation these classes used to create The ignorant natives would rank all kinds of immunity from small pox.30 inflammatory diseases under ‘fever’. Sometimes However, Hakims had the knowledge of attack of pneumonia with the first chills of winter recognizing small pox by certain signs, and they would spread among a community, ignorant of most would prescribe medicine cloves, which they gave elementary principles of hygiene. Because they were to the patients with gold dust. There were numerous poorly fed insufficiently clothed, destitute of medical diseases about which we do not have any official aid or appliances for nursing the sick they often record, but as they were every time prevalent attended with fatal results.24 among the poor, so the traditional treatment only When cholera would break out among the Tharu had the remedy for them. tribes of Utter Pradesh, the medicine man extracted For the treatment of Syphilis the fruit of Bel juice of onion and mixed it with liquor to give the (Aeglemar melos) bark of Dudhia (Halarrhena patient three times a day.25 However in South Indian antidysentrica) seeds of black pepper, were dried, villages a mixture of butter, milk and camphor was grind and mixed together by the tribes of Baigas given to the patient. But as the rapid industrialization (Madhya Pradesh)31They had a belief also that occurred, the nature of the spread of cholera Dispiri mata give Syphilis and she was offered ears 26 changed and it broke out in a huge epidemic form of buffalo32 The Vaidyas in Rajasthan generally 27 in many parts of the country. treated syphilis with mercury percloride.33 The house hold remedies of the poor could not The disease gonorrhoea was very common facilitate them in chronic situations. Therefore the among the tribal people. It was prevalent in almost records give us an idea about the heavy death toll all around India.