The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c11.13

c11.13

In fact, whether we study the Brahmanic, Buddhist or Jaina texts or the scientific treatises, the *Dharmaśāstras* or the technical manuals, we always find legends replacing history we have been looking for. In the most favourable cases the legends are at least mixed with historical data. One should also note that it is in Brahminism, where the continuity of tradition is most certain, that the obscurity regarding the transmission of teachings is at its worst, whether because of the absence of information or because of the effect of legends. However, the old texts are available to us in their authentic form and in their archaic language. They could not have come to us without a continuous and uninterrupted tradition although this itself may have been forgotten. In the presence of this important fact, we must recognise that the legendary character of the data concerning the origins and the transmission of medicine is in conformity with Indian practice and in no way implies that the antiquity claimed for the origins is false and that the existence of a continuous transmission of teaching since antiquity is fictitious.