The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c10.3

c10.3

A hymn addressed to the Aśvins, after saying that they give thrice the remedies of the Sky, of the Earth and of the Waters, calls on them to carry (vahatam) to the son of the reciter the *tridhātu śárma* (RV., I-34-6). *Śarman* denotes "protection" or "well-being", but the latter sense has come in only classical Sanskrit. The commentator Sāyaṇa has understood it to refer to the well-being of the three bodily elements of classical medicine. However, *tridhātu* means literally "consisting of three objects", therefore "triple", and it refers to the triple protection of three sorts of remedies which are mentioned here. Moreover, the following verse also contains the word *tridhātu*, and there the sense of triple is unchallenged. The translators have, at a very early date, recognised that the interpretation of Sāyaṇa had been abusive. Langlois who published in 1848 the first complete translation of the *Ṛgveda*, although, generally speaking, he has not been a faithful translator, has rightly recognised and pointed out in a note that *tridhātu śárma vahatam* simply signified "triplex auxilium ferte", although, in translation, he has followed the sense of the commentary. The majority of other translators have not even taken note of the interpretation of Sāyaṇa, except Wilson¹ who has accepted it without reserve because he had made it a rule to follow the commentary, and has thus led the historians of medicine to believe that the fundamental theory of Indian pathology was to be found in the *Ṛgveda*. Reinhold Müller has done well to refute this view once again.¹