The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c10.71

c10.71

¹ Ewing already quoted and Deussen on whom Macdonell and Keith (Vedic Index, see prāṇa) base themselves for saying: "The exact sense of each of these breaths when all are mentioned cannot be determined". Keith, in particular, is sure that the Brahmins understood nothing of what they themselves said of the five prāṇas: "The term prāṇa is subdivided into five elements among other divisions, and these five are obviously incapable of presenting any intelligible picture to the mind of the priests." (The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upaniṣads, Cambridge, Mass., 1925, p. 484). Oldenberg has justly recognised the correlation existing between the nomenclature of the breaths in the Brāhmaṇas and in Medicine (Die Weltanschauung der Brāhmana-text, Gottingen, 1919, p. 66), but he has, on that occasion, gone back to the data of the Saṃhitās and has not directed his reflections to that subject, not having recognised the importance of the physiological concepts in the "pre-scientific science" (Vorwissenschaftliche Wissenschaft) which he was studying (cf., p. 67).