Gaja-Cikitsā in the Agni Purāṇa

Gaja Cikitsā · gaja-cikitsā, “the treatment of elephants”

Gaja-cikitsā is the treatment of elephants (gaja, elephant; cikitsā, treatment), the heart of the Gaja-Āyurveda, the Āyurveda of elephants. In the Agni Purāṇa it is taught by Pālakāpya in Chapter 287. Speaking to Lomapāda, Pālakāpya first gives the gaja-lakshaṇas, the marks by which a good elephant is known, and the seven good marks that make an elephant victorious; then the treatment of each disease of elephants, from fever, colic and abscess to the diseases of the trunk, the feet, the eyes and the skin; and last the food and the daily care that keep elephants strong.

The Purāṇa says that Pālakāpya taught this Gaja-Āyurveda to Aṅgarāja, the king of Aṅga, just as Śālihotra taught the Āyurveda of horses to Suśruta. Around the teaching stand the other places where the Agni Purāṇa speaks of elephants: the Gaja-śānti, the rite that removes their diseases and consecrates the state elephant; the rule that keeping elephants well is auspicious; and their work in the king’s army, where kings seek victory through elephants.

The teacher of the Gaja-Āyurveda

At the close of the chapters on the kalpas that conquer death, Dhanvantari says that Pālakāpya taught the Gaja-Āyurveda to Aṅgarāja, the king of Aṅga (Chapter 286). The next chapter opens with Pālakāpya himself speaking: “O Lomapāda! I will tell you the gaja-lakshaṇas and gaja-cikitsā” (Chapter 287). At the end of the Gavāyurveda, Agni Deva names the teachers again: Śālihotra taught the Aśva-Āyurveda to Suśruta, and Pālakāpya taught the Gaja-Āyurveda to the king of Aṅga (Chapter 292).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 286–287, 292

The marks of elephants

Pālakāpya gives the marks of the elephants a king should acquire and of those he should refuse:

  • Elephants with long trunks, which take long breaths, have endurance.
  • Those with twenty or eighteen nails, and that secrete mada (the fluid of the temples) in the cold season, are excellent.
  • Elephants whose right tusk is raised high, whose trumpeting is like the roar of a cloud, with broad ears and with fine spots on the skin, should be acquired.
  • Short elephants, and those without the marks, should not be acquired.
  • Female elephants with “pārśva-garbha”, and elephants that are dull or maddened, should not be kept.

There are seven good marks (sal-lakshaṇa): varṇa (colour), sattva (spirit), bala (strength), rūpa (form), kānti (lustre), saṃhanana (compactness of body) and java (speed). An elephant that has these seven conquers enemies in battle. Elephants give great glory to the camp and to the army, and kings seek victory through elephants.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 287

The treatment of diseases

Pālakāpya then gives the treatment of each disease, as the elephant physician (gaja-cikitsaka) is to give it:

  • Jvara (fever): in fever of every kind, anuvāsana (an oily enema) is given.
  • Vāta-roga: bathing with abhyaṅga (rubbing) of ghee and oil destroys it.
  • Skandha-roga (disease of the shoulder): the elephant is treated “as in pālaka”.
  • Pāṇḍu-roga (pallor): cow’s urine, haridrā (turmeric) and ghee are given.
  • “Kalabandha”: it is good to rub the body with oil and bathe it, and to make the elephant drink madirā with the five salts.
  • Mūrchā (fainting): a mouthful of vāyu-viḍaṅga, triphalā, trikaṭu and saindhava salt is fed, and water with honey given to drink.
  • Śiraḥśūla (headache): abhyaṅga and nasya (medicine through the nose).
  • Pāda-roga (diseases of the feet): the treatment begins with poultices (puṭaka) with oil; afterwards cleansing with “kala”-kashāya.
  • Kampana (trembling): the meat of the tittiri (partridge) and the lāva (quail), mixed with pippalī and marica (pepper), is fed.
  • Atisāra (diarrhoea): a ball of unripe bilva, lodhra, dhātakī and śarkarā (sugar) is fed.
  • Disease of the trunk: ghee with salt is given as nasya.
  • Utkarṇaka-roga: gruel made with māgadhī (pippalī), nāgara and jīraka, and the juice of vārāhī-kanda, are given.
  • Gala-graha (seizure of the throat): oil made with daśamūla, kulattha, āmla and kākamācī, used with marica, destroys it.
  • Mūtrakṛcchra (painful urination): surā with the eight salts and ghee is given to drink, or a decoction of trapusha seeds.
  • Carma-dosha (skin disease): a decoction of nimba or of vṛsha.
  • Koshṭha-krimi (worms in the bowel): cow’s urine and vāyu-viḍaṅga.
  • Wounds: water boiled with śṛṅgī, “bekakaṇa”, drākshā (grapes) and śarkarā heals them; meat juice also is beneficial.
  • Aruci (no taste for food): rice of mudga (green gram) with vyosha (the three pungents).
  • Gulma (abdominal swellings): a sneha (medicated fat) made with trivṛt, vyosha, citraka, dantī, arka, śyāmā, milk and gaja-pippalī removes them.
  • Vidradhi (abscess): every kind is destroyed by bheda (incision), drāvaṇa (draining), abhyaṅga, sneha-pāna (drinking of fat) and anuvāsana.
  • “Kaṭa”-roga: a lepa of green gram soup mixed with “dashṭika”, with unripe bilva.
  • Śūla (colic): to remove colic of every kind, balls of viḍaṅga, indrayava, hiṅgu and the two kinds of haridrā are given in the first part of the day.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 287

Food and care

Pālakāpya names one food as the best food for elephants, and all other foods as inferior; the name of that best food has dropped out of the printed text. Yava (barley) and ikshu (sugarcane) increase the strength of elephants; dry grass disturbs the elements of the body (dhātu-prakopa). For a weakened elephant, drinking milk kindles the digestive fire, and cooked meat juice is beneficial.

In battle and in great danger, a ball made with honey from vāyasa, kukkuṭa (the cock), kāka, ulūka (the owl) and “hara” is given. Dhūpa (fumigation) with kaṭu, fish, viḍaṅga, salt, kośātakī, milk and haridrā makes the elephant victorious.

For the eyes: pippalī, rice grains, oil, mādhvīka and honey put into the eye are stimulating. An añjana (eye-salve) of the droppings of the sparrow and of the pigeon, with a milky tree and madya, is liked by elephants; when it is put on its eyes, the elephant crushes the enemy in battle. Blue lotus, mustā and tagara, ground in rice-water and put on the eyes, give supreme coolness and calm.

The daily care is this: when the nails grow, they are cut; every month the elephant is rubbed with oil; where elephants lie down there should be dust of dried dung; and in śarad (autumn) and grīshma (the hot season) sprinkling with ghee is beneficial for them.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 287

The Gaja-śānti

Śālihotra teaches the Gaja-śānti, “which removes the diseases of elephants”. In the nitya (regular) śānti, on the pañcamī tithi, Vishṇu, Lakshmī and Airāvata are worshipped with the devas, the mountains and the ashṭa-diggajas (the elephants of the directions), and an elephant given abhisheka with the water of the śānti-kalaśa grows and prospers. In the naimittika (occasional) śānti, at Makara and the other saṅkrāntis, the elephants are worshipped outside the town in the north-east; a hundred homas are done for each devatā; one returns home with the gaja-rāja (the state elephant) and the fire, sounding instruments, and gives dakshiṇā to brāhmaṇas and to the elephant physicians. Then a knower of the times mounts the gaja-rāja and speaks the mantra into its ear, asking it to leave its animal nature, to remember its divinity and to protect the Mahārāja always, in battle, on the road and at home. If the gaja-rāja dies, the śānti is done again and the mantra spoken into the ear of another elephant. The king mounts the consecrated gaja-rāja at an auspicious muhūrta, followed by armed heroes.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 291

Elephants in the king’s dharma and in war

  • Keeping elephants: keeping horses and elephants is auspicious, but if they are not kept properly it brings sorrow (Chapter 289).
  • Protection by law: one who harms a cow, an elephant, a horse or a camel has half his hands and half his feet cut off (Chapter 227).
  • The season of the march: in the rains the king takes an army strong in foot soldiers and elephants; in hemanta and śiśira, one strong in chariots and horses (Chapter 228).
  • The day of battle: the king bathes the vehicles and worships Nṛsiṃhasvāmī the day before; he mounts elephants to go east, chariots to go south, horses to go west and beasts of burden to go north (Chapter 236).
  • The work of elephants: four chariots guard each elephant’s feet, four horsemen each chariot, and four sword-and-shield foot soldiers and four bowmen each horseman. Elephants break a close-knit vyūha, join one that is broken, and smash rampart gates, roof-tops and trees; uneven ground suits foot soldiers, level ground chariots and horses, and muddy ground elephants (Chapter 236).
  • In the vyūha: Śrī Rāma teaches that elephants go in front to clear the road, make a path through forest-forts that horses cannot enter, break firm lines, fill gaps where the vyūha has broken, strike fear into the enemy, break the gates of the enemy’s fort with their heads, carry the treasury with the army and protect it when fear arises; a vyūha of nine elephants is called an anīka (Chapter 242).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 227–228, 236, 242, 289

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 227–228, 236, 242, 286–287, 289, 291–292