India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s7.9

c8.s7.9

In medical language patients are described in terms of the disease from which they suffer. Pāṇini notes a general provision to derive the name of the patient after the name of the disease (V.2.128), for example *kushṭhī* from *kushṭha*, one afflicted with leprosy, (VIII.3.97), etc. Similarly he mentions *arśasa* (one suffering from haemorrhoids, V.2.127), *vātaki* (a sufferer from wind troubles), *atisārakī* (V.2.129, one afflicted with dysentry). One suffering from the debilitating effects of a disease was called *glāsnu*, 'convalescent' (III.2.139). Kātyāyana notes the word *āmayāvī* (*vārttika* on V.2.122) for an ailing patient.