Quotes:Charaka

H. P. Blavatsky

Charaka. A writer on Medicine who lived in Vedic times. He is believed to have been an incarnation (Avatara) of the Serpent Sesha, i.e., an embodiment of divine Wisdom, since Sesha‐Naga, the King of the “Serpent” race, is synonymous with Ananta, the seven‐ headed Serpent, on which Vishnu sleeps during the pralayas. Ananta is the “endless” and the symbol of eternity, and as such, one with Space, while Sesha is only periodical in his manifestations. Hence while Vishnu is identified with Ananta, Charaka is only the Avatar of Sesha. (See “Ananta” and “Sesha”.).

Source: H. P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary, art. Charaka

Zirkoff, Boris

Charaka. “Wanderer.” Ancient Muni and physician, born in Panchanada, Kashmir. Acc. to Chinese trans, of the Buddhist Tripitaka, he was the official physician of Indo-Scythian King Kanishka in the first or second century A. D. Acc. to legend, the 372 Serpent-King Sesha, who was the recipient of the Ayur-veda, when visiting the earth and finding it full of sickness, became moved with pity and determined to become incarnated as the son of a Muni for alleviating disease. He was called Charaka because he visited earth as a kind of spy or chara. Wrote a Compendium, the Charaka-samhitâ (See App. p. 364), representing Âtreya’s system of medicine, as handed down by his pupil Agnivesa.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 5, pp. 371-372