A lesson on Kalidasa’s Raghuvaṃśa and tuberculosis connection of Ancient India from my dad
Actually my father should be writing this article, as I am not at all the researcher for this but since he is not penning it, being busy with his reading of some classic Sanskrit text, I am being the messenger. I hope I have not missed an important nuance in this writing.
While, my regular readers would know my background well, I would tell you a bit about my father. My dad taught Sanskrit in a college of Delhi University until 7 to 8 years back when he retired and was involved in social activism all his life. Along with this and family life he still spends time devouring texts on ancient India (and its ancient trading partners). In addition to single molecule drug discovery, using rational drug discovery approaches and frankly hunch, I am also involved in looking at plant based sources of medicine. This means that I am talking more and more to my father about things other than standard father-son things and discussing various traditional medicinal systems of Indian subcontinent, Malay and Indonesian region, Persians, ancient Middle-East, and Greeks.
Recently, we were covered by India’s most read newspaper for our TB work and it meant that my dad and I had a discussion on tuberculosis in Ancient India. I learned a lot of things that I did not find on net. So here are those for anyone who would be interested.
Tuberculosis was somehow considered to be a malady of kings and was frequently called “Rajarog”. It was also called as “Rajyakshma”. “Raj” in both the words stands for royal, while “rog” for disease, and “yakshma” for injury. Yakshma in sanskrit is very akin to zakhma in Persian branch of Indo-European languages. Somehow over-indulgence was considered to be the cause of this disease. The only preventive approach used for this then incurable malady was chag or aj meat, means mutton, which was fed to royals to prevent them from contracting this disease.
In the middle ages, a famous Mughal ruler, who is known for taste in culture instead of governance, Jahangir is considered to have died from symptoms which match tuberculosis but from ancient times, where unfortunately the boundary between history and mythology blurs there has been mention of Rajyakhshma.
In famous epic of Kalidasa, Raghuvaṃśa, written in 5th century AD, Rajyakshma is part of the famous tragic tale. The tale is about the mighty dynasty of Raghu, from which Hindu deity Sri Ram is supposed to belong. Raghu’s mighty conquests of central Asia, regions near Oxus river and all tales show a then superpower but the demise of the dynasty’s last king comes at the hand of tuberculosis. This king, Agnivarna, died when his wife was pregnant without leaving a clear heir. Kalidasa, one of the greatest poets of ancient times, leaves us in mystery about the unborn child but shows demise of mighty dynasty at the hands of tuberculosis. Maybe this story, which has such a strong cultural connection with Indian subcontinent would get people to join to find cure to this deadly disease of tuberculosis.
