The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c10.27

c10.27

*Prāṇa*, alone, has the same meanings as in the *Ṛgveda*, meanings which have become fixed elsewhere. It denotes the vital breath, hence life, and hence the cosmic soul. But in the *Atharvaveda*, *prāṇa* is sometimes used in the plural number; upto seven *prāṇas* are counted¹ and the names of seven of them are given. These figures suffice to establish that the breaths in question are not, all of them, respiratory. Thereafter one must ask oneself if they do not correspond to the breaths which are mentioned in classical medicine under the same names, explicitly defining them the while.² Even when profound differences in nature could be discerned between the known breaths of the Veda and those whose existence is taught by medicine, it will be evident, solely because of the plurality of the breaths and the identity of their names, that medicine, for its pneumatology, depends on the ancient ideas of the Veda.