Traditional Thai medicine is a holistic discipline involving extensive use of indigenous herbal and massage/pressure treatment combined with aspects of spirituality and mental wellbeing. Having been influenced by Indian and Chinese concepts of healing, traditional Thai medicine understands disease not as a physical matter alone, but also as an imbalance of the patient with his social and spiritual world.

Thai medical manuscripts written during the 19^th century give a broad overview of different methods of treatment and prevention, of the understanding and knowledge of the human body, mind/spirit and diseases. In 1831, King Rama III ordered the compilation of various medical treatises to be used as teaching materials for the newly established royal medical schools at Wat Phrachetuphon (Wat Pho) and Wat Ratcha-orot in Bangkok. Wat Phrachetuphon formally became the first Royal School of Medicine in 1889 and still runs a Thai Traditional Medical School today.

This folding book, containing extracts from the Vinaya Pitaka and the legend of Phra Malai (a monk who is believed to have travelled to heavens and hells through the powers of meditation), depicts two elderly women, one massaging the legs of the other woman lying down on the floor with her hands folded in prayer. In the background earthenware vessels contain traditional medicines, which were usually boiled in big pots and then taken throughout the day (Or 13703, f. 81).

Medical manuals and handbooks (khamphi phaetsāt songkhro) describe the anatomy and physiology of the human body, diseases and their possible causes, and methods of diagnosis and treatment. Some of these books are finely illustrated with human figures and diagrams; sometimes the human figures themselves appear like diagrams, particularly in massage treatises (tamrā nūat). Other manuals contain knowledge in the field of midwifery and herbalist practices including recipes for the preparation and use of herbal medicines (tamrā yā samunphrai). Most of these manuals were based on the knowledge and texts used by the royal physicians at the Thai court. Thai traditional medicine can be traced back to the Dvaravati (6^th-13^th centuries) and Sukhothai (ca.1238-1438) kingdoms according to stone inscriptions and pharmaceutical artefacts. Under King Narai (1656-1688), the first Thai pharmacopeia known as ‘Tamra Phra Osot Phra Narai’ was compiled by royal physicians.

According to the medical treatises, the human body consists of 42 elements, belonging to four groups (earth, wind, water and fire). If one or several of these elements are in disorder, it causes disease. The traditional Thai physician would have to find out which elements were unbalanced and why, and then try to restore the balance between them. This could be achieved by various methods, which included treatment with herbal and other supporting natural remedies, pressure points massage and body or head massage, as well as physical exercise (Yoga), meditation and dieting – or a combination of several of these methods.

A massage manual from Bangkok (Or 13922)

Or 13922, ff. 1-5

This lavishly illustrated paper folding book (samut khoi) with black lacquered covers is a manual for pressure massage in Thai language and script. It describes the channels in the body terminating in pressure points and how pressure massage can be used to treat certain illnesses. It is believed that the book was produced at Wat Phrachetuphon, Bangkok, in the first half of the 19^th century as the text clearly relates to the medical inscriptions from that time on the walls of this royal temple, which is adjacent to the royal palace.

It begins with an unlabelled large gilded diagram of the human body (Or 13922, ff. 1-5, shown on the left). It gives an introductory overview of the network of channels within the body. The figure is shown wearing lavish gilt royal headgear and the main pressure points are also gilt, whereas the rest of the body has been drawn in black ink. The area around the navel is a central point where many channels start.

This manuscript can be viewed in full on our digitised manuscripts webpage.

The diagram below (Or 13922, f. 32) indicates the channels and main pressure areas of the body, stylistically represented by spiralling calligraphic lines. One channel known as pinkhalā, for instance, begins at the navel and proceeds past the base of the right leg to exit via the back. Another channel, the susumannā line proceeds from the navel into the chest, climbs through the body and exits through the tongue.

Or 13922, f. 32

In most of the diagrams, the pressure points are named and their functions are described in detail. The fleshy areas of the body are all neatly labelled as such, so that the book also gives insight into the Thai understanding of the human anatomy. Each illustration indicates the points of the body that can be treated with pressure massage, which diseases can be treated and how many times certain points have to be massaged.

Here the pressure point above the right eye is identified as the one for treating pains and infections of the eye as well as dizziness. In the middle of the forehead is a point for treating headaches, fevers and congestion of mucus and haemorrhage in the nasal passage. (Or 13922, f. 36)

 

Massage in traditional Thai society

Not only massage treatises, but also illustrated Buddhist manuscripts and literary texts provide evidence that massage treatments were very popular and frequently used at all levels of Thai society. Buddhist manuscripts, such as the first example above, often contain genre scenes from the everyday life of Buddhist monks and lay people.

Lively descriptions of situations where pressure massage was carried out can be found in one of the most notable Thai literary works, Khun Chang Khun Phaen, a lengthy narrative of love and death which began in a folk tradition of oral performance (sēphā), but was adopted by the royal court and transformed into written text in the early 19^th century. Quite often, it seems, pressure massage was the method of first choice in emergencies such as this (Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit (eds.), The tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen. Siam’s great folk epic of love and war. Chiang Mai, 2010, p. 236):

Her body was motionless. ‘Wanthong, oh Wanthong!’ No sound came in return. With body trembling, she shouted, ‘Servants! Come to help, quick!’ The servants all came up in a rush. They propped Wanthong up. They wept. They massaged both her legs. They pressed between her eyebrows to open her eyes. Siprajan cried out, ‘Softly, now! Why don’t you massage her jaw?’ She sat with a kaffir lime in her hand, staring vacantly. ‘Do everything you can, everything.’ Someone bit Wanthong’s big toe, and then she murmured.

Jana Igunma, Asia and African Studies

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In our recent exhibition and the accompanying publication Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, we featured paintings made in Delhi as well as at the Mughal province of Awadh during the 18th century. In March, we were able to add to our collection a splendid work by the artist Faizallah - a Mughal artist who relocated to Awadh - that dates to circa 1760. The artist's signature is discreetly written above the doorway on the left.

A reluctant maiden being led to an eagerly awaiting prince by Faizallah, c.1760
British Library, Add.Or.5724

From the mid-16th to the early 18th century, artistic workshops were established at the Mughal courts in the cities of Lahore, Delhi, Agra as well as Allahabad.  With imperial patronage waning during the 18th century and Nadir Shah's infamous sacking of Delhi in 1739, Mughal artists fled from the capital and appeared in places such as Awadh (cities of Lucknow and Faizabad), Bengal (Murshidabad and Patna) as well in the Punjab Hills. Unfortunately, there is very little written historical documentation on the movement of artists from Delhi to the provinces. Instead, art historians rely on the painterly styles and the provenance of paintings to ascertain both the location and date of production.

The artist of our painting, Faizallah, has a rather noteworthy biography. In the last few years, John Seyller (an art historian and professor at the University of Vermont) has been able to trace of the geneaology of Faizallah. Through inscriptions found on several paintings, we now know that Faizallah (our artist) is the son of Faqirallah Khan and the grandson of Muhammad Afzal. Both his father and grandfather were important Mughal artists who flourished in Delhi. His father, Faqirallah Khan later migrated with Faizallah to the province of Awadh by the 1760s. The British Library's collection now includes signed paintings by all three generations of this family.

A visit to a shrine
Ascribed to Muhammad Faqirallah Khan, c. 1740
British Library, Johnson Album 17,3

Portrait of a lady at the jharoka
Ascribed to Muhammad Afzal, c. 1740
British Library, Johnson Album 11,2

Faizallah has received little scholarly attention, as compared to his contemporaries Mir Kalan Khan and Mihr Chand, who also relocated from Delhi to Awadh. This lovely painting demonstrates Faizallah's training in the imperial Mughal style, inherited from his father, before shifting to a rather nuanced and elaborate Lucknow style. As a rising star in the Awadhi art scene, Faizallah would radically transform simple terrace scenes into confections of multilayered 'idealized palaces surrounded by formal gardens that would recede to the horizon' (Welch 1985, 281). For an example of Faizallah's later work, see his study of a palace complex in the David Collection, Copenhagen.

Malini Roy, Visual Arts Curator

Further reading:

J.P. Losty and Malini Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, British Library, 2012

Malini Roy, "Origins of the late Mughal painting tradition in Awadh" in Markel and Gude, India's Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow, Prestel, 2010

J. Seyller and K. Seitz, Mughal and Deccani Painting, Museum Reitberg, 2010

S.C. Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York, 1985

The British Library is currently mid-way through a three-year partnership project with the Iran Heritage Foundation UK (with additional support from the Bahari Foundation and the Barakat Trust), to open up access and increase awareness of our collection of over 11,000 Persian manuscripts. These originate from Iran, Central Asia and India, and range in time from the 12th century to handwritten and typed texts of recent years. They include some of the most famous illustrated Persian and Mughal manuscripts, several of which were recently on view in our exhibition Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire (if you couldn't make it, see our recent post ‘A farewell to the Mughals’).

Majnun is brought in chains to Layla's tent. From Nizami's Layla Majnun. Painted by the 16th-century Safavid court artist Mir Sayyid ?Ali  (Or.2265, f. 157v). Find this online 

Our aim is to construct reliable and consistent metadata describing each manuscript, and to have the bulk of the collection catalogued in digital format by the end of 2014, subject to funding. Details of over 2,000 works have already been added to FIHRIST, a web-based catalogue providing a searchable interface for manuscripts in Arabic script from the major manuscript collections in the UK.

 

A second part of our digital project is to digitise and put online 50 manuscripts over the next two years. So far we have uploaded the entire text of Shah Tahmasb’s copy of Nizami’s Khamsah (Or.2265) and the three poems by Khvaju Kirmani (Add.18113), copied in Baghdad in 1396. These can be read cover to cover on British Library Digitised Manuscripts.

From Nizami's Haft paykar: Bahram Gur kills the dragon. Painting by Muhammad Zaman dated 1675/76, added perhaps when the manuscript was rebound at the court of Fath ?Ali Shah Qajar (r.1797-1834) (Or.2265, f. 203v). Look at this online

Over the next few months we'll be adding the following manuscripts — so watch this space!

IO Islamic 132: Collection of Poetical Divans, Ilkhanid, 1314-15
Add. 27261: Iskandar Sultan's Miscellany dating from 1410-11
Add. 25900: Khamsah of Nizami, with paintings by Bihzad. Copied in 1442 (see previous post)
IO Islamic 3540. Firdawsi's Shahnamah. Shiraz, 16th century
Or. 6810: Khamsah of Nizami, copied for Amir Barlas. Herat ca.1494 (see previous post)
Add. 18579. Anvar-i Suhayli by Husayn Va‘iz Kashifi. Mughal, 1610-11:
IO Islamic 3442. Shahanshahnamah by Fath ?Ali Khan Saba. Qajar, 1810

From the Kulliyat of Khvaju Kirmani, copied in 1396. In this painting, by the artist Junayd Naqqash Sultani (his name is inscribed in an architectural block above the bed), Humay has gold coins poured on him as he leaves Humayun's room, the day after their wedding (Add.18113. f.45v). Find this online

We are now seeking funding for further digitsation. If you would like details or are able to help in any way, please visit our page ‘Opening up Access to the Persian Collections’.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Asian and African Studies

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