Dhanvantri

 Dhanvantari, an amsa of Lord Narayana, is mentioned in Puranas. He came from the milky ocean when it was churned. The treatise called Bhavaprakasa says Indra wanted to help human beings, because he saw them suffering from diseases, said Velukkudi Krishnan in a discourse. He, therefore, asked Dhanvantari to go to the earth and keep the world free from disease, for that, after all, was the purpose of the Dhanvantari avatara. Dhanvantari was born in the royal lineage of Varanasi, and was known as Divodasa. One version says that Divodasa was the grandson of Dhanvantari. There is a portion of Bhagavata Purana, called Narayana Kavacha, which talks about Dhanvantari.

The court of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain was adorned by nine gems, each of them an expert in some field. The nine gems were Dhanvantari, Kshapanaka, Amarasimha, Kalidasa, Varahamihira, Vararuchi, Shankhu, Vetala Bhatta and Ghatakarpa. The presence of Dhanvantari among the nine gems shows the importance kings gave to the health of their subjects. Ayurveda is the science that is concerned with increasing the lifespan of human beings. It is also concerned with making those long years healthy.

Hindu philosophy says that we take births due to our karma. A jivatma suffers or has pleasant experiences based on its past karma. Among the many things that cause unhappiness and agony in mankind, diseases are perhaps the foremost. It is to mitigate suffering due to disease that Prajapati gave the world Ayurveda. It is to Surya that one prays for good health. Significantly, in the Srirangam temple, close to the Dhanvantari shrine is the Paramapada entrance. Dhanvantari gives us good health on earth. The Paramapada entrance shows us that moksha too can be given only by Lord Narayana, when our life on earth ends.