The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c11.33

c11.33

In other points of information furnished by Megasthenes we have got an indirect proof of the activity of medical research in India from the end of the 4th century B.C., because Megasthenes tells us how the diseases of elephants were treated. and we see thereby that a secondary branch of medicine, that of the veterinary art of elephants had already assumed a physiognomy which we find it to possess in later texts of elephantology, particularly in the Āyurveda of Elephants, the Hastyāyurveda attributed to Muni Pālakāpya. In fact we have already had an occasion to show that the prescriptions indicated by Megasthenes were in conformity with those of this Āyurveda.¹