{"id":1975,"date":"2020-06-01T12:34:18","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T12:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2020-06-04T13:23:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T13:23:07","slug":"epidemics-lessons-from-history-and-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/2020\/06\/01\/epidemics-lessons-from-history-and-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Epidemics: Lessons from History and Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Arushi Kapoor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most of us grew up hearing phrases like \u2018Humans should learn from their past\u2019, \u2018Nature is the art of\nGod\u2019, \u2018We should respect nature<\/em>\u2019, etc. which in a form embodied the basic values of human life.\nThe current pandemic COVID-19 has brought the whole world to its knees regardless of a person\u2019s\nstatus, wealth, nationality, or political leanings. It has forced us to take a break from our rat racing\nlives and reflect on our current lifestyles while also delving into our past. Understanding the past is\ncrucial to analyse the actions which ultimately gave us the present as its result. In this process,\nreferences are being made to the epidemics and pandemics faced by humans on various steps in\nhistory. Thus, following is an account of how Marwar<\/em> (Jodhpur) in Rajasthan battled such an\nepidemic not so long ago and how the measures taken stand in comparison with efforts being\nmade now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The kingdoms (later called the princely states) of Rajasthan had a long tradition of keeping records\nin varying forms of the notable happenings. One such major source of history for this region was\ncalled HAKIKAT BAHIYAN<\/em> which contains elaborate reports on measures taken to counter one such\nepidemic in 1836 and plague in 1918. It was in the months of September-October, 1836 under the\nrule of Maharaja Man Singh (1803-1843), when there was a spread of a contagious disease not\n\nmuch different from Corona Virus. Hakikat Bahiyan<\/em> defines it as \u2018shehar mai rog chaliyo\u2019 (the city\nis under the spread of a disease)<\/em>. While some of the measures taken were of common nature,\nsome were rather interesting which are being adopted even today. The first step was to collect\nfunds which were initiated by the king himself. He donated wealth equal to his body weight which\namounted to \u20b98800 equivalent to almost \u20b98 crores in current value. Further, huge amount of\ndonations were collected similar to the present PM and CM care funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like the contemporary doctors and medical scientists, the king consulted Brahmins and vaids<\/em>\n(doctors) to ascertain a path to ward off the epidemic. One of the resulting steps was to pour\nalcohol on the boundary wall of city including all the windows and doors; Chandpol, Sojti gate,\nSivanchi gate, Jalori gate, Nagori gate & Modti gate<\/em> were drenched with alcohol at night after the\npious invocation to Bhairoji (bhairavji) was in place. This had a dual purpose, while alcohol was a\nsanitizing agent to keep the disease out from city walls (like it is being used as an essential\ncomponent in sanitizers today); it was supposed to be blessed with divine powers of Bhairoji.\nBesides this, religion being a dominant element of state power, there were regular Yajnas and\nHoms<\/em> performed on daily basis near the gates and boundary to keep the infection at bay. These\nperformances included objects which produced plenty of smoke supposed to purify the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another such situation was faced in the form of plague and influenza near the end of World War I\nin 1918. It was during the rule of Maharaja Sumer Singh (1911-1918), who himself was not able to\nsurvive the illness and died at a young age of 21. Nevertheless, the king resorted to the most\ninfluential counter measures. These included setting up a relief committee to look after the needs\nof the poor including food and medicines. To reduce the population density in small areas,\ntemporary shelters were built outside the city walls. All the grand houses and private property\nassociated with the royalty and government were made available to accommodate the common\npeople on king\u2019s orders. There was also an attempt to control the inflation and make necessary\nitems available to all on a regulated price. Even the shop and city gates\u2019 timings were regulated\nmore strictly than in the usual days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One important factor common to the actions of both the kings was their aim to keep the\nworkforce involved in front foot fight against these diseases separate and far away from the\ncommon populace. Same was applicable to patients and the ones attending to the unfortunate\nwho couldn\u2019t survive, unlike the mandatory quarantine for frontline corona fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above stated efforts are in a way the primitive forms of actions adopted to fight of COVID-19.\nSocial distancing, providing basic necessities to all, attempts to reach a scientific cure as fast as\npossible (can be compared to religious solution being dominant in past) are the simplest steps\npossible to stop the spread of most advanced and fatal disease till now. This takes us back to the\ncardinal lessons about the values of life we are taught during our childhood. It\u2019s time we stop\nourselves from harming the nature beyond repair, stop the population explosion, respect and\nappreciate what we have instead of running like machines and leading workaholic lifestyle.\nBurdening the environment around us will always lead to a pandemic or epidemic of some kind,\nunless we learn to live in harmony with nature. It\u2019s like earth\u2019s warning to keep in check the\nglutinous humans. Humans should learn to respect each other, and all kinds of occupations. The\ndistinctions of status and wealth need to die for a better life for all. It\u2019s time we learn the lessons\nhistory has attempted to teach us numerous times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world has combated all sorts of crisis without the degree of technological growth we have now. The advancement of knowledge has indeed succoured in to take measures against the deadly Covid-19, but how did people survive in the history? How accurate were the primitive
\nmeasures? Where are we still going wrong?
\nClick on the link below to read more about the ways of the past; a story from Rajasthan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[740,1230,1224,1226,1217,1241,1220,796,1216,847,1210,1219,576,1209,1208,1218,1231,1215,1235,1207,1214,1222,1239,1232,1229,537,797,1213,1211,1240,736,1236,1221,1234,1212,1225,1228,1242,1227,1237,1223,1238,1233],"class_list":["post-1975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-alcohol","tag-bhairoji","tag-brahmins","tag-chandpol","tag-contagious","tag-corona-fighters","tag-corona-virus","tag-covid-19","tag-disease","tag-doctors","tag-epidemic","tag-fatal-disease","tag-food","tag-hakikat-bahiyan","tag-human-life","tag-influenza","tag-jalori-gate","tag-maharaja-man-singh","tag-maharaja-sumer-singh","tag-marwar-jodhpur","tag-measures","tag-medical-scientists","tag-medicines","tag-modti-gate","tag-nagori-gate","tag-nature","tag-pandemic","tag-plague","tag-princely-states","tag-quarantine","tag-rajasthan","tag-relief-committee","tag-relief-funds","tag-religious-solution","tag-reports","tag-sanitizing-agent","tag-sivanchi-gate","tag-social-distancing","tag-sojti-gate","tag-temporary-shelters","tag-vaids","tag-world-war-i","tag-yajnas","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1975"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions\/2000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisaras.org\/projectdhaara\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}