An ancient Sanskrit text on cowpox vaccination
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Is there an ancient Sanskrit verse, often credited to Dhanvantari, that describes vaccination with cowpox before Jenner?
Indian claim not supported by evidenceMedicine & health
Indian claim
A verse said to come from an old text (sometimes credited to Dhanvantari) describes taking matter from the udder of a cow to protect people from smallpox, which would mean India knew vaccination before Jenner.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- The verse first appears in print in January 1819, in a note in the Madras Courier signed 'Calvi Virumbon', who said he had found it in an old manuscript.
Commonly credited to
Edward Jenner developed cowpox vaccination in England in 1796 and published it in 1798.
Evidence for the other claim
- No manuscript of the verse older than the British vaccination campaign has been found.
- Indologist Dominik Wujastyk's study 'A Pious Fraud' (1987) concluded the text was most likely composed in the early 1800s to persuade Indians to accept Jenner's vaccine by giving it an Indian pedigree.
What historians and scientists say
Scholars agree the verse is not ancient. It appears to have been written in colonial times to promote vaccination. India's real pre-Jenner tradition was variolation (tika), which is well documented.