JĪVAKA, LORD GAUTAMA BUDDHA’S PERSONAL PHYSICIAN
Though enlightened as a Sammā Sambuddha, having been born as a human being, the Buddha was also subjected to decay, disease and death as other beings. The Buddha had remained a fairly healthy person in general with a busy daily schedule of going on the alms round, practising walking meditation, and attending to the spiritual needs of the monks and nuns, lay disciples as well as celestial beings. During the rainy season when the Buddha stayed in one residence to spend the rain retreat, but throughout the rest of the year, the Buddha used to go on walking tours teaching the Buddhist doctrine. However, there are some discourses of the Buddha recorded in the collection of the Buddha’s discourses (sutta pitaka), wherein the Buddha has complained of backache or some other physical discomfort needing to lie down, having advised a senior disciple to continue to deliver a discourse. There are also other instances of Buddha’s ill health including a traumatic incident in which the Buddha’s foot was injured during an attempt by a vengeful monk called Devadatta to kill the Buddha.
During those incidents of ill health, the name of Jīvaka appears frequently in the Buddhist literature as the physician who provided medical care to the Buddha. As the personal physician to the Buddha, Jīvaka provided medical treatment and health advice not only to the Buddha but to the community of Buddhist monks as well. He was a devoted lay disciple of the Buddha making a significant contribution to the Buddha’s dispensation and has also spiritually developed by becoming a Stream Enterer (Sotāpañña), the first supra mundane stage of enlightenment in the Buddhist spiritual path of liberation from suffering. Hence, it is worth knowing something about the Buddha’s physician who is also known as one of the greatest physicians and surgeons in ancient Indian medicine.
Studying to be a physician
Jīvaka went away to Taxilā which was the greatest university in ancient India situated in present-day Pakistan, Northwest of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. At that time, there was a great teacher in Ayurvedic medicine named Guru Atreya Punarvasu at Taxilā University who agreed to take Jīvaka as his student without any payment. Jīvaka studied hard and very diligently under his teacher and was a promising student who was helping his fellow students as well. After seven years of studying under his teacher, he asked the teacher whether he was now qualified enough to practise medicine on his own. To test his competency, the teacher advised him to take a shovel with him and search the entire district of Taxilā to find a plant that could not be used as medicine. Jīvaka went around the whole of Taxilā district and could not find a single plant which had no medicinal properties. When a disappointed Jīvaka returned to the teacher to report his failure to find a single plant which could not be used as a medicine, his teacher congratulated him and informed him that he had completed his education at Taxilā. The teacher gave him some money for his journey and Jīvaka, now a fully qualified physician, left Taxilā to return to Rājagiri.
The practice as a physician
There are many incidents recorded in the Buddhist literature in which Jīvaka’s skill as a physician has helped to cure many patients with various medical disorders. The first patient that Jīvaka treated while he was travelling back to Rājagiri, was the wife of a rich merchant in a city called Sāketa. She was suffering from a headache for seven years which many famous physicians had failed to cure. Jīvaka offered to treat her on the condition that he would not expect any payment unless she was cured. It is said that he treated her with a nasal spray that included ghee mixed with several medicinal ointments and she responded to his treatment successfully. He was generously rewarded for his treatment and when he returned to the palace in Rājagiri, he gave his first earnings to Prince Abhaya. Prince Abhaya refused to accept it and arranged for Jīvaka to work as a physician in the palace and to reside in Prince Abhaya’s residence.
There are recorded incidents in which Jīvaka has also successfully performed surgical operations to cure the ailments of his patients. In Rājagiri, Jīvaka treated a rich merchant who had a chronic head ailment. He operated on the merchant’s head by making a burr hole in the skull and surgically removed two worms from inside the head and then sutured back the skin. Another patient on whom Jīvaka performed a surgical operation was the son of a merchant from Benares who was suffering due to a twisted bowel. Jīvaka successfully operated on the patient’s stomach to straighten the twisted bowel and then sutured it back and applied a medicinal ointment.
Some treatments given to the Buddha
At one time, the Buddha was suffering from an imbalance of bodily humour and consulted Jīvaka for treatment. It is said that Jīvaka first treated the Buddha by rubbing some oil on the Buddha’s body so that the Buddha’s body would become soft. Then Jīvaka gave a mild purgative to the Buddha followed by a strong purgative in the form of three handfuls of lotuses that were mixed with several medicines which he advised the Buddha to smell. When he had gone away after giving the treatment to the Buddha, Jīvaka realized that he forgot to advise the Buddha to have a warm water bath to complete the treatment, but it seems the Buddha read his mind and took a warm water bath at the right time.
The offering of the Mango Grove Monastery
Jīvaka soon became wealthy with the rewards that he was receiving from his wealthy clients. Though he treated wealthy clients for money, he also continued to treat poor patients for free. Jīvaka who has now become a noble disciple of the Buddha by becoming a Stream Enterer, remained a devoted lay disciple of the Buddha. He used to visit the Buddha regularly to enquire about the Buddha’s health and also to learn and discuss the Buddha’s teachings. He wanted to visit the Buddha more frequently but at that time, the Buddha used to stay at the Veluvana Monastery in Rājagiri which was donated to the Buddha by King Bimbisāra. As it was far away from him, Jīvaka built a monastery for the Buddha and the monks in his Mango Grove with his own money and offered it to the Buddha. From time to time, the Buddha used to stay there and the monks also used the monastery for their rain retreat.
Jīvaka was one of the foremost disciples of the Buddha and the Buddha has declared him to be the foremost male lay disciple with faith (puggala pasanna).
- I highly recommend reading about Jīvaka a great sotāpanna physician who contributed greatly to Sasana. Some rules of the Vinaya (Code of conduct of monks) were modified by Lord Buddha after the advice of Jīvaka.