It seems, however, that the nature of this association consisted in the fact that both of them dealt with the curing of diseases and the attainment of long life the one principally by incantations and charms, and the other by medicines. All that can be understood from these conflicting references is that it was traditionally believed that there was a Veda known as Āyurveda which was almost co-existent with the other Vedas, was entitled to great respect, and was associated with the Atharva-Veda in a special way. We thus find that Āyurveda was regarded by some as a Veda superior to the other Vedas and respected by their followers as a fifth Veda, as an upaveda of the Atharva-Veda, as an independent upaveda, as an upāṅga of the Atharva- Veda and lastly as a vedāṅga. Roth has a quotation in his Worterbuch to the effect that Brahmā taught Āyurveda, which was a vedāfiga, in all its eight parts. Brahma-vaivarta, a later purāṇa y says that after creating the Rk, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva Brahmā created the Āyurveda as the fifth Veda. 33, speaks of upaveda, and Nīlakaṇtha, explaining this, says that there are four upavedas, Āyurveda, Dhanur-veda, Gāndharva and Artha- śāstra. Vāgbhata, the elder, speaks of Āyurveda not as an upāṇga, but as an upaveda of the Atharva-Veda.
Īgain, Caraka distinguishes Āyurveda as a distinct Veda, which is superior to the other Vedas because it gives us life, which is the basis of all other enjoyments or benefits, whether they be of this world or of another. The science of life has always been in existence, and there have always been people who understood it in their own way it is only with reference to its first systematized comprehension or instruction that it may be said to have a beginning. Āyurveda was not produced at any time out of nothing, but there was always a continuity of the science of life when we hear of its being produced, it can only be with reference to a beginning of the comprehension of its principles by some original thinker or the initiation of a new course of instruction at the hands of a gifted teacher. For, far from being a small appendage, it was more than ten times as extensive as the Atharva-Veda.Ĭaraka, in discussing the nature of Āyurveda, says that there was never a time when life did not exist or when intelligent people did not exist, and so there were always plenty of people who knew about life, and there were always medicines which acted on the human body according to the principles which we find enumerated in the Āyurveda. If the Āyurveda originally contained 100,000 verses, it cannot be called an upāṇga of the Atharva-Veda, if upāṇga is to mean a small appendage, as Ḍalhaṇa explains it. The Atharva- Veda contains six thousand verses and about one thousand prose lines. ” Thus, while hands and legs are regarded as aṅgas, the toes or the palms of the hands are called upāṅga.
1100) in explaining the word in his Nibandha- saṃgraha, says that an upāṅga is a smaller aṅga (part)- “ aṅgam eva alpatvād upāṅgam. What upāṅga exactly means in this connection cannot easily be satisfactorily explained. Suśruta says that Āyurveda (the science of life) is an upāṅga of the Atharva-Veda and originally consisted of 100,000 verses in one thousand chapters and was composed by Brahmā before he created all beings ( Suśruta-saṃhitā, 1.