A History of Sanskrit Literature c34.s1.4

c34.s1.4

Buddhist tradition talks of Jīvaka, who studied under Ātreya and was an expert on children’s diseases; the *Vinaya Piṭaka*¹ and other texts show a wide knowledge of elementary medicine, surgical instruments, the use of hot baths, and so forth. It was, of course, inevitable that living as they did in communities the Buddhists had early to consider the tendance of their sick members.²