The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.158

v1.c17.158

In one respect there seems to have been a distinct retrogression since the age of the Rigveda. In that Saṃhitā there is frequent mention of the physician’s skill, and wonderful deeds are ascribed to the Açvins as healers of diseases. As early as the Yajurveda Saṃhitās, however, the physician appears to be held in less esteem: the Açvins were said to have made themselves inferior to the other gods by their practice of medicine, by which they made themselves too familiar with all sorts of people. The Atharvaveda contains much which gives a sad picture of the medical practice of the day: against the numerous diseases which it mentions it had nothing better to oppose than the use of herbs and water accompanied by strange spells, based on sympathetic magic. The number of diseases recorded by differing names is large: the most frequent was fever, no doubt the malaria which still haunts India; and others mentioned are consumption, haemorrhoids, abscesses, scrofula, dysentery, boils, swellings, tumours on the neck, convulsions, ulcers, scab, rheumatism, tearing pains, headache, leprosy, jaundice, cramp, senility, and others less easy to identify. Various eye diseases were known; and the use of a sand bag to stop bleeding is recorded. The dissection of the animal victims at the sacrifices gave the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the bones of the body², but on the whole the facts recorded, especially in the Atharvaveda and the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa, give us no very elevated opinion of the accuracy of the Vedic physician in this regard.