Meeting with a Visha Vaidya

A VISIT TO A VISHA VAIDYA

Visha Vaidya is usually an Ayurveda / Siddha practitioner specializing in treatment of various types of poisonous bites.

Shri Shanmuganathan, 62 years of age, residing in a small town called Thirupporur (40 kms south of Chennai) is one such vaidya. He treats persons bitten by all kind of snakes, scorpions etc. He says people from distant villages within a radius of 90 kms approach him for this line of treatment. As a practitioner of Visha Chikitsa for the last 40 years, he claims to treat on an average around 1000 patients annually.

In all these years, he has not had any failure. Obviously, he is very confident that he can save any victim of any snake bite provided the victim is brought to him on time i.e., within about an hour of the incident. He recollects having saved some people who were very close to death, whose heartbeat had become very feeble and blood started to come out through the urinary passage.

He mentions two cases in particular. The first where the patient had consumed alcohol before being bitten and the second case involving a one and a half years old infant bitten by a cobra, which according to him gave the utmost satisfaction.

When families of victims telephone him, he instructs them to tie the limb above the wound tightly with a coir rope immediately. Also, the victim should not ride a bike / bicycle etc. or come unaccompanied. Normally 2 persons are advised to escort the victim and in case they travel by a two-wheeler, are advised to seat the victim in between. Also, the victim should not be fed with anything other than buttermilk.

The visha vaidya can identify the snake from the fang marks. Depending on the type of poison and the stage of poisoning, he administers appropriate medicines. The medicines are prepared from medicinal herbs by the vaidya himself. He reads the pulse to detect the condition of the patient. Now he uses a stethoscope, which he finds very useful for detecting heartbeat. He received his training under his father who was also a visha vaidya. In most visha vaidya families, the members of the family practising this line of treatment keep this tradition alive.

According to the vaidya, a few years ago, the district authorities of Madurai tried to put a ban on this mode of practice. Many vaidyas temporarily gave up their practice. But soon it was found that a large number of victims admitted to the government hospitals for snakebites died during that period. So the administration had to allow the vaidyas to practice by giving them a formal recognition.

The villagers find this Visha vaidya’s treatment effective and convenient. His service is available 24 hours. The modern Anti-Venom treatment being expensive, most villagers cannot afford it. A course of Anti-venom medicines cost from Rs. 4000/= to Rs. 6000/= whereas the traditional vaidya’s treatment costs a maximum of Rs. 300/= only. Hence the rural people prefer to seek this visha vaidya for treatment.

Shri Shanmuganathan is a retired headmaster of the local middle school in Thirupporur. It appears even the Education Department has recognized his service as invaluable. The Department has not transferred him from this area as a recognition of his service to the rural community.

Visha Chikitsa is one of the 8 branches of Ayurveda. The Ayurvedic texts deal at length with the various treatments for different kinds of poisonous bites. In Tamil Nadu, a community known as Irula also practices this branch of medicine. There are Visha vaidyas spread throughout the country who practice this branch of medicine with great success.