The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c10.21

c10.21

In the Ṛgveda appear only two names which are given to them later on, firstly the one that is used as the generic designation of all of them: *prāṇa*, followed, only once, by *vyāna*. But the root *an*, "to breathe", is also found accompanied by the pre-verbs *apa-* and *sam-*. *Prāṇa* has the general sense of breath, of life. The most important passage wherein it occurs is the one already noted by us (p. 63) where the atmospheric wind is regarded as produced by the breath of the Cosmic Man. The cosmic wind is already clearly conceived as having for its motor this breath or wind, even when it does not show itself in the form of wind itself because in a hymn to the Sun it is said, "Inside it circulates the brilliant, breathing by its own breath."¹ The passage is obscure, inasmuch as the female being designated by the "brilliant" cannot be surely identified² and hence it is not possible to affirm whether *apa* denotes here the "downward" direction or more generally "outside", "keeping itself away", which is imparted to the breath. With the pre-verb *sam-*, *an* is once used in "today he is dead, Yesterday he has gathered his breath".³ As regards *vyāna*, it is assimilated in the spring of the chariot of *Sūrya* in verse 12 of the epithalamium of *Sūrya* and *Soma* (X, 85) a large part of which is found again in the *Atharvaveda* (XIV, 1).⁴