Gujarat Pharmacy has ‘Mahatma’ connection
Jivaram Kalidas Shastri,
the royal physician (Raj Vaidya) of erstwhile Gondal state, first time coined
the title ‘Mahatma’ (Great Soul) for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi at the premise
of Shri Bhuvaneshwari Aushaadhashram Ayurvedic Pharmacy. Medicines were
exported to Gandhiji’s Ashram (Tolstoy Farm) in South Africa from the pharmacy,
which was started in 1910 as Gondal Rasasala.
On the 27th January 1915 Gondal Rasasala (Ayurveda Pharmacy)
had a special guest. A grand reception was arranged for Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, who came back from South Africa in July 1914. No
one knew that the function would become milestone in the life history of
Gandhiji. In the welcome speech, the founder of Rasasala Jivaram Shastri, who
was also royal physician of the erstwhile princely state Gondal, first time
ever termed Gandhi as ‘Mahatma’ with reference to historic movement against
apartheid in South Africa from 1908 to 1914. This epithet ‘Mahatma’ later
became a universally accepted synonym for Gandhiji and he has been immortalized
as ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ in the world history.
Mahatma also had great respect for Raj Vaidya and said that he used to
read Ayurveda literature published by Shastriji. “Ayurveda is ancient Indian
science to keep up the health of crores of Indian living in villages. I
recommend shape and live his life on the basis of Ayurveda. May Rasasala be
able to render more glorious services to Ayurveda,” said Gandhiji during the
function. In fact, medicines manufactures at Rasasala were exported to South
Africa at Tolstoy Farm, around 35 km from, Johannesburg, where Gandhi and his
followers were staying for Satyagraha campaign during 1910 to 1913.
Since then Jivaraj Shastri dedicated his life for Ayurveda till he passed
away at a ripe age of 110 in 1978. His septuagenarian son Acharya Ghanshyamji
has kept the essence of pharmacy alive. “We have hardly made some changes in
the process of making Ayurvedic medicines. Unlike other pharmacy, we have
decided not to plunge into bulk manufacturing; rather most of the processes are
still manual. Perhaps this might be the reason, we are still falling in SME
category despite being one of the oldest Ayurveda medicines making unit in the
country,” he says.
Interestingly doors for the manufacturing area of the pharmacy remain
open for even unknown visitors. When the unit was redesigned in 2003,
Ghanshyamji’s son Dr. Ravidarshan made it a point to design the unit in such a
way that visitors can have a look at traditional manufacturing process without
disturbing the men at work. Still waste woods and cow dung are being used as
fuel for special processes. The pharmacy has hardly Rs. 5 crore turnover, but
they manufacture around 300 different products that include OTC products also.
When it comes of heritage sites in Saurashtra peninsula, Gondal town, 40
km from Rajkot is having great importance. Tourist would entice to visit Gondal
to see superb town planning by its erstwhile ruler Maharaja Bhagwatsinhji, a
vintage car museum, temples and fantastic palaces and buildings constructed by
rulers of Jadeja dynasty. Along with
these attractions, a century old pharmacy also generates great interest amongst
them, especially foreign tourist. Even a National Geographic Channel took a
note of the heritage pharmacy.
When asked about expanding business and modernizing the manufacturing
process to cater larger market, Ravidarshan says, “We want to grow organically
and want to keep traditional method of making Ayurveda medicines intact.
Despite the fact, we have mechanized certain processes to cater the increasing
demand. But we can’t take risk on specialized processes prescribed in age-old
Ayurveda literature written after years of experience. If we do that just to
produce medicine in bulk, the essence of Ayurveda will die,” says Ravidarshan.
Common Belief
The common belief is Rabindranath Tagore first called Bapu as
Mahatma. Dates go back to July 1915.
However, around seven years back Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad came with a
document that revealed that Gandhiji was referred to as Mahatma by the founder
of Gondal Rasasala. The document was presented by Gandian Manubhai Parekh
describing about a public function organized much before Tagore calling Bapu as
Mahatma in January in the same year. With the document ambiguity over
who first called Gandhiji as Mahatma ended.
Cow milk is recommended in Ayurveda. Acharya Ghanshyamji favors purity of Indian
cows and he is against cross breeding of cows just for the sake of enhancing
milk production. According to him Indian
cow breeds possess a rich 42 A2 allele gene that provides better and healthier
quality of milk than foreign breeds. “Scientists of the Karnal (Hariyana) based
National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources
(NBAGR) have revealed in a report that the A2 allele gene in Indian milk
breeds cows are 100 per cent , while in foreign breeds, it is around 60 per
cent,” he said. The foreign breeds of cows produce more milk than Indian
varieties, but due to more concentration of A1 gene in those breeds, the milk
is of low quality. The scientists scanned 22 breeds of Indian cows and found
that in five milk yielding Indian cows – Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Rathi
and Gir – The status of the A2 allele was 100 per cent, while in other Indian
breeds used for farming, its status was around 94 per cent. When foreign breeds
popular in India, Holstein, Friesian and Jersey, in which the status of the A2
allele was only 60 per cent.
Ayurveda Tourism
The management of Bhuvneshwari
pharmacy is also promoting Ayurveda tourism. Last year around 500 foreign
tourists have visited here to see traditional Ayurveda medicine manufacturing
process. Unlike heritage sites abroad, there has been no entry fee to visit the
pharmacy. When asked about taking charge from the tourist, Dr. Ravidarshan said
that the taking fees from guests are against the Indian tradition and culture.
“Our intention is to keep ancient Ayurveda and its processes intact.
