Traditional Knowledge Of Medicine In Manipur

‘Caraka Samhita’ and ‘Susruta Samhita’ were the two traditional medical conspectuses in India’s earliest system of indigenous medication. Indian insight of healing system returns to at least 6000 BC, in which Lord Brahma is connoted as the maker of the Universe and the principal instructor in Ayurvedic texts, in the Hindu mythology, where he showed the curative information to the Celestial healer Prajapati Daksha, who thusly moved the gained wisdom to the twin divine sons, ‘Asvins’ of the Sun God. The information on Ayurveda was passed to the Rishis and sages by Lord Indra.

Bharadwaja, being the primary mortal disciple, instructed it to others including Atreya, who is trusted to be a prestigious instructor at Taxila, (700-600 BC). Dhanvantari, who was believed to be delivered, bearing a bowl of ‘amrita’ in his grasp, from the surge of inestimable sea stirred by the divine beings and devils to spare the world from decimation, was favored by Lord Indra with the wisdom of Ayurveda, who later turned into a prestigious educator in the craft of ‘Surgery’ and began guiding his followers at Kashi or Varanasi around sixth Century BC.

This shows India’s refined medical legacy with an unbroken tradition descending across over four millennia and it is as yet favored by a great many people for their health care needs.

It is believed that the pro-historic Harrapa’s medicine Culture (2000 BC) contained the seeds of much that was qualities of later Indian medicine. Nonetheless, our insight into it is inadequate as there are brief and incomprehensible written accounts.

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In the last five or six centuries before Christ, the traditional Indian medical system advanced into something like its enduring structure, where, legends and traditions emerged among the class of healers, which offered esteem to their art by associating with the divine beings and celestial sages of the legendary past.

The AYUSH System depicts systematized medical frameworks, while, there also exists to a great extent ‘non-codified’ and diversified tradition of the folk therapeutic system which, in Indian strategy papers are progressively alluded to as ‘Local Health Traditions’, where a great many family practice home cures, the recipes, and formulae which have been passed on orally from age to age.

In the northeastern part of India, there are various ethnic communities, where in Manipur, the tribals viz., the Kuki, Naga, Kabui, and so on, inhabit mostly the sloping landscapes, and non-tribal ethnic communities viz., the Meitei, occupy the plains. With natural diversity being the basis for differentiation between knowledge systems, each ethnic community has its traditional system of healing. And, there is no chain of the pecking order in the traditional medical system as each ethnic healer has its novel aptitudes, settled proficiency, ingenuity, and praxis on identifying with the advancement of positive wellbeing and prevention of infection even before hospice oriented system of medication.

However, they are related to each other by an association of Maiba-Maibi, known as ‘Apunba Manipur Maiba-Maibi Phurup’(Manipur State Traditional Healers Association), where they attempt to safeguard their old tradition of medicine through logical utilization to suit the present way of life.

The local physician in Manipur, who is referred to as ‘Maiba’ for Male healer and ‘Maibi’ for a female healer is significant in the general public whether it is the Meitei or the tribal, to such an extent the testament passed by the advanced specialist has no “traditional, cultural or religious value” for the removal of a dead body. Only after the formal revelation articulated by the traditional healer, Maina /(Beita in this case), the procedure of funeral of the dead body can be taken up according to their beliefs. The conventional healers used the different Indigenous Medicinal Substances (IMS), commonly comprehended as those prescriptions which are produced using the products of locally accessible plants, creatures, and other timberland items for healing various maladies. Their conventional health care practices are locally known as ‘Maiba-Maibi Laiyeng Pathap’ (Maiba Maibi Health care treatments).

With the appearance of the modern system of medicine in Manipur (1910-1920), the utilization of indigenous medicine slowly decreases. Nevertheless, traditional treatment utilizing IMS still holds an important role in some chosen health areas like dog bites, bone fracture, white patches, jaundice, paralysis, stone cases, diabetes, white discharge, liver pain, stomach ulcer, cough, snake bite, mental disorder, hypersensitivity and so on since people believe it to be superior to any sort of treatment. Traditional health specialists start the treatment after properly analyzing the diseases by taking case history in subtleties, perusing internal temperature level, pulse, and so forth. They are the main expert accessible and indeed, even today, births went to by traditional birth chaperons in rustic regions.

This customary system of medicine, in spite favored by the ordinary people over biomedicine in several areas of treatment, the conventional medicinal framework in Manipur is declining alongside the Maiba/s and the Maibi/s. Accordingly, it is in need to investigate the components prompting the declination of this customary therapeutic system along with the local physicians Maiba/s and Maibi/s in Manipur. The present paper will attempt to explore it by breaking down the verifiable setting in historical context and state policy framework on the traditional system of medicine in Manipur.