The Indus Civilization c10.25

c10.25

Some, at least, of their feasts must have had their aftermath, and there is some reason to suspect that the city-dwellers suffered as much from digestive troubles as do the modern Indians. Apart from local simples, the properties of which were doubtless known to most housewives, other medicinal ingredients were used. The many horns of the Sambur deer found at Mohenjo-daro are unaccompanied by the other bones of that animal, and Colonel Sewell has suggested that these horns were powdered up and used as a medicine, a purpose which powdered stag's horn serves at the present day in India. A black substance of which specimens have been identified as *Silajit* is still in use in India as a specific for dyspepsia and diseases of the liver and spleen. It exudes from rocks in the Himalayas and is brought down by hill-men into India. At a site in Sind named Othmanjo-Buthi, which dates from the Indus Valley period or a little earlier, Mr. Majumdar found several cuttle-bones stored in pottery. This substance serves a multitude of uses in the Ayurvedic system and, as Dr. Prasad has explained, it enters into the composition of various digestive salts as well as being used for diseases of the ear, eye, throat, and skin.