Guru, vriddha, rishi and siddha grahonmaada: Geschwind syndrome?

Abstract

Background: “Bhuta vidya” (Ayurvedic psychiatry) is one of the eight branches of Ayurveda. The person afflicted with bhuta/graha gets grahonmaada/bhutonmaada and he will exhibit superhuman abilities or qualities without any nown/visible etiopathology. Among the 18 types of bhutonamaada's explained by Vagbhata, “Guru, Vriddha, Rishi and Siddha grahonmaada” (GVRSG) is one. Till date, there is no clear understanding about etiopathology, symptomatology, and management of GVRSG. No works have been conducted on this topic. Aim and Objective: The present article aims at better understanding of GVRSG. Discussion: Geschwind syndrome is characterized by hypergraphia, hyper religiosity, hyposexuality, circumstantiality, and intensified mental life. People like Guru, Vriddha, Rishi, and Siddha in ancient India are known to have qualities such as, “knowledge,” “teaching,” “moralistic,” “disciplined,” “religious,” “ethical,” “experienced,” “having super natural owers,” “counselor,” “guide,” and “following celibacy,” which resembles with the symptomatology of Geschwind syndrome such as, hyper-religiosity, hypergraphia, hyposexuality, emotional liability, grandiosity, and obsessive-compulsive like symptoms. Conclusion: There is marked similarity found between GVRSG and Geschwind syndrome and Ayurvedic diagnosis of Guru, Vriddha, Rishi, and Siddha bhootonmada/grahonmada is suitable for Geschwind syndrome.