Dhanvantari

Dhanvantari is the physician of the gods, who rose from the churning of the ocean (samudra manthan) holding the pot of amrita. He is honoured as an avatar of Vishnu and the source of Ayurveda. Physician families, the Ashta Vaidyas of Kerala and the Vaidyas of Bengal, give Dhanvantari as their gotra.

The churning accounts differ in detail. In the Bhagavata Purana [8.8.31-35] he is a young, dark man with long arms, holding a jar full of nectar, called a portion of a portion of Vishnu and expert in medicine; the asuras snatch the jar at once. In the Ramayana [Bala Kanda 45] he rises first, a righteous soul with a staff and a water vessel, the embodiment of the science of life. The Mahabharata [Adi Parva 18] shows him carrying a white vessel of amrita.

A second line of tradition makes him a king of Kashi. The Vishnu Purana [IV.8] gives the line Kasha, Kashiraja, Dirghatamas, Dhanvantari, Ketumat, Bhimaratha, Divodasa, Pratardana. There Narayana grants him a boon: he will be born in the Kashi family, compose medicine in eight divisions and receive a share of the offerings made to the gods. The Bhagavata [9.17.4-5] calls him a son of Dirghatama, "the inaugurator of medical science" and an incarnation of Vasudeva, and gives the same descendants. Some Purana accounts write the father's name as Dirghatapas.

The two stories meet in the Sushruta Samhita. Its first chapter has the sages, Sushruta among them, approach Dhanvantari, who has taken birth as Divodasa, king of Kashi, and ask him to teach surgery. The text traces the science from Brahma to Prajapati, the Ashvins and Indra, and from Indra to Dhanvantari. The Puranic lists make Divodasa Dhanvantari's great-grandson, not the same man. Some translators read "Dhanvantari" in this chapter as a title borne by Divodasa, a surgeon of the line. The Sushruta Project, which studies the oldest Nepalese manuscripts, reports that the early version names Divodasa as the teacher and later versions name Dhanvantari. The Divodasa of the Rigveda is a different person (see Divodasa).

1. Rising from the ocean: he emerges from the churning of the ocean with the pot of amrita, and the asuras try to seize it.
2. Born in the line of Kashi: Narayana grants him a boon to be born among the kings of Kashi and compose the science of medicine in eight divisions [Vishnu Purana IV.8].
3. Teacher of Ayurveda: as Divodasa, king of Kashi, he teaches surgery to Sushruta, the basis of the Sushruta Samhita. The Puranas treat Divodasa as his great-grandson.
4. Dhanteras: his day, two days before Diwali, falls on Kartika Krishna Trayodashi and is kept as Dhanvantari Jayanti.
5. National Ayurveda Day: India's AYUSH ministry first marked National Ayurveda Day on Dhanteras, 28 October 2016. It was reported moved to a fixed date, 23 September, from 2025.

• The churning ocean: the Ocean of Milk, from which he rises.
• Kashi: the capital of the kings of his line.
• A healer's garden of medicinal plants: the setting of the physician's art.
• Dhanvantari shrines: among them the temple at Thottuva in Kerala and a shrine in the Srirangam temple courtyard.