Page:An address delivered to the graduates admitted at the Convocation of the Senate of the University of Madras, held on Monday, April 5, 1878 (IA b22350172).pdf/7

 and sought for was the Ambrosia which confers life and health.

“The gods had failed, but when Ananta, the Serpent King, bid the great snake Vasaki wind himself as a churning cord around the mountain Mandara, all the gods pulled vigorously at the living cord, until from the agitated floods uprose the Moon, and the Goddess Lakshmi; the white Horse and the wonderful gem called Kaustubba;


 * And lastly from the troubled waves,
 * Amidst the glorious cheering,
 * Up rose Dhanwantani the sage,
 * The lost Ambrosia bearing.

This was the famous Physician, bearing in his hand a white jug containing the coveted Ambrosia. " This Dhanwantari is said by some to have obtained the Ayur Veda—the ancient medical record of the Hindoos—from Brahma direct, by others to have been instructed in its mysteries by Indra, the God of Heaven, where Dhanwantari practised medicine with grcat success. But witnessing the ignorance and misery of mankind, he descended upon earth to cure their maladies and to instruct them in the means of preventing as well as curing diseases. This Dhanwantari became King of Kasi or Benares, the most holy city of the Hindoos—a city well worth