India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s7.1

c8.s7.1

There is evidence of early investigation and nomenclature in the Vedic period of a number of important diseases and also of the identification of many useful herbs which pharmaceutical research in that age employed to fight disease. The evolution is further suggested by the development of specialised studies, as for example, Toxicology (*Visha-vidyā*) which is enumerated in one place in the list of special sciences or *vidyās* (*Vedic Index*, II.312).