The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c12.2

c12.2

THE texts whereby the three oldest Indian manuals of medicine teach that all motor activity inside the organism comes from an internal organic breath identical to the atmospheric wind are in close accord amongst themselves. On this point the doctrine of Āyurveda is particularly clear and definite. A similar physiological concept of the wind also exists in Greek medicine, although it is not equally clearly admitted there. A. Götze has observed that the Hippocratic text *Peri Phuson* (The Winds), makes one think of the great rôle played by the concept of breath in Indian thought of the period of the Brāhmaṇas and he had no doubt that the Greek work had been under oriental influence.¹ The question of this influence can be definitely decided by a simple *rapprochement* but the analogy noted by Götze is evident¹ and the *Peri Phuson* concords even with those of the texts of classical medicine, particularly with those which are said to belong to the school of Ātreya Punarvasu.