the medicine man: a forerunner

 

R. Suryanarayana Murthy

 

In the world of disease, where billions are prey to myriad troubles.

Giving them sleepless nights.

When anxiety and worry about the dawn of the morrow

Keeps persons in high tension and low spirits

The presence of a doctor by the bedside

Could be the greatest of boons.

 

Not for nothing the medicine man was glorified by the early tribes

He is nicknamed sorcerer by modern pundits

But could be truly a scientist with an all-embracing role,

Using his medical knowledge for political gain

While compelling death to take a glance and pass by

Instead of pouncing on his patients with its piercing claws.

 

In ancient Taxila a student searches and searches in vain

To find one plant or herb not useful for man

In the vast herbal garden adjacent to his school

Is it an insignia of acquisition of highest knowledge?

Or is it the starting point of research?

As no visible sign there is to set a limit to knowledge horizons

Which seem to recede further and further

The more the knowledge is acquired.

 

In Mahabharata a tribal chief,

Practising the highest arts in life saving game

Befools Takshaka, the serpent king,

By bringing back to life a tree

Reduced into cinder by its venomous fangs

A miracle indeed but medical science presents many such miracles

 

The great Asoka built many a hospital for man and beast

To restore life or give it a fresh lease

A time when sciences and arts mingled in harmony

To make life less miserable to man.

 

 

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