What is the difference between Charak Shapath and Hippocratic Oath?

Charak Shapath vs Hippocratic Oath: The Dean of Tamil Nadu's Madurai Medical College was removed on May 1 after new students were administered the Charak Shapath oath in Sanskrit instead of the traditional Hippocratic Oath in English. State Finance and Commercial Taxes Ministers were present during the induction ceremony. 

Following this, Dr A Rathinavel, the Dean of the college, was removed and placed on the waiting list. There is no information on his next posting. Through this article, let us understand the difference between Charak Shapath and Hippocratic Oath. 

Madurai | First-year MBBS students of Government Madurai Medical College took 'Maharishi Charak Shapath' instead of the Hippocratic oath during the induction ceremony yesterday

Tamil Nadu govt has moved to 'Waiting List' the Dean of Government Madurai Medical College. pic.twitter.com/xnnh5YhEzz

— ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2022

Charak Shapath vs Hippocratic Oath

Hippocratic Oath: The oath is attributed to Hippocrates of the island of Kos. He is a Greek physician from the 4th-5th centuries BC and is also known as the Fathe of Modern Medicine. 

The Hippocratic Oath is a charter of principles that physicians have administered for ages to uphold the practices of their profession. The original oath dates back to the late 3rd century AD, and as per the extracts published in BMJ in October 1998, the Oath says:

"I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but I will never use it to injure or wrong them.

I will not give poison to anyone though asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a plan. Similarly, I will not give a pessary to a woman to cause abortion. But in purity and in holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife either on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will do so to help the sick, keeping myself free from all intentional wrongdoing and harm, especially from fornication with woman or man, bond or free.

Whatsoever in the course of practice I see or hear (or even outside my practice in social intercourse) that ought never to be published abroad, I will not divulge, but consider such things to be holy secrets."

Charak Shapath: India has seen many sages but the historicity of Charaka is uncertain. The set of medicines that carries his name is likely to be the work of a group of people and all of them have not been written in the same period. 

Charak Samhita is a collection of commentaries and discussions on medical practices that dates from the first to the second century AD. It is the foundational text of ancient Indian medicine that subsequently became a system of understanding and treating diseases. 

According to an extract from The Wonder That Was India in 1954, a part of the sermon says:

"...You must strive with all your soul for the health of the sick. You must not betray your patients, even at the cost of your own life… You must not get drunk, or commit evil, or have evil companions… You must be pleasant of speech…and thoughtful, always striving to improve your knowledge.

When you go to the home of a patient you should direct your words, mind, intellect, and senses nowhere but to your patient and his treatment… Nothing that happens in the house of the sick man must be told outside, nor must the patient’s condition be told to anyone who might do harm by that knowledge to the patient or to another."

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