A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s3.33

v1.c8.s3.33

One of the chief constituent parts of the Atharvaveda-Saṁhitā consists of Songs and Spells for the Healing of Diseases, which belong to the magic rites of healing (bhaiṣajyāni). They are either addressed to the diseases themselves imagined as personal beings, as demons,³ or to whole classes of demons who are considered to be the creators of diseases. And in India, as among other peoples, it is believed that these demons either oppress and torment the patient from outside, or that the patient is possessed by them. Some of these spells are also invocations and praises of the curative herb, which is to serve as the cure of the disease; others again, are prayers to the water to which special healing power is ascribed, or to the fire which is looked on by the Indians as the mightiest scarer of demons. These songs of magic, together with the magic rites attached to them, of which we learn in the Kauśikasūtra which will be mentioned later, form the oldest system of Indian medical science. The symptoms of the various diseases are often described with great clearness in the songs, and therefore they are not uninteresting for the history of medicine. This is true particularly of the spells against fever. In the later text-books of medicine the fever is still called "the king of diseases," on account of its frequency and violence. Numerous charms are addressed to Takman¹—this is the name of the fever imagined as a demon in the Atharvaveda. Thus, for instance, hymn Ath. V. 22, from which a few verses may here be quoted: