Bhishaka, or Bhishaj, the physician in ancient Hindu world, is mentioned at several places in Rig Veda (II, 33.4; 50.7; IX 112.1 and more). Nothing is said about his origin. There is no evidence of the medical profession being held in disrepute; the Ashwins, Varuna, and Rudra are all called physicians. In Yajur Veda Samhita, however, there are derogatory references to the practice of medicine by the Ashwins, as it brough them ‘too close to human beings.’ But these references are interpreted as an allusion to their ‘promiscuous conduct’ rather than as a condemnation of what they practiced.
Bhishaj, according to Ushanas, was the offspring of marriage
between a brahmin male and a kshatriya female. Ushanas, however, holds that the
son of a brahmin by a kshatriya wife is a brahmin (Manu 10.47). The profession of
medicine is prescribed for an ambastha who, according to Yajnavalkya (1.91) and
Ushanas, was the offspring of a brahmin male and a Vaishya female. Ushanas says
that an ambastha may undertake work related to agriculture, or may become a
dance, herald or doctor.
This bhishaka was a practitioner of Ayurveda (literally,
life-knowledge) the science of longevity. Ayurveda was regarded as one of the
Upavedas, closely associated with Atharva Veda. It embraces all
aspects of well being – physical, mental and spiritual. Its main object is
ayusha (long life) through Arogya (freedom from disease).
In practice, a bhishaka studies the causes, symptoms,
diagnosis and cure of diseases. In the beginning, Ayurveda was mainly medical
and empirical, but it later developed as a philosophical theory, highly
elaborated, abstruse and remote from reality, based on recondite abstractions
that had little apparent relevance to practical therapy, but related to the
supra-physical and spiritual base of the Hindu systems of thought and living.
The bhishak also came to be known as the Vaidya, meaning ‘one
who knows’.