The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c13.30

c13.30

Among the vessels Plato distinguishes two conduits placed on both sides of the vertebral column, and of the generating Medulla and which, near the head, branch out in interconnected form (77d-e). Mr. Rivaud rightly hesitates regarding their identification², but it seems to refer in Plato to a theoretical concept, based merely on a vague knowledge of the existence of thick vessels near the vertebral column, because he says: They (the gods) dug two dorsal vessels, as the body was in double, having a right and a left” (77 d). These vessels do not really correspond to any anatomic reality but are, on the other hand, a datum of theoretical anatomy of India which is, this time, not furnished by the Sanskrit medical texts themselves but by the mystical literature o f the *Tantras*. In fact it is a thesis current in this literature as also in the later Upaniṣads which refer to the same ideas. It amounts to saying that two canals called *iḍā* and *piṅgalā* are found on the two sides of the vertebral column and of a central canal called the *suṣumnā*³, the three cross one another in the body. Moreover, the tantric texts vary as regards the question of their crossing one another.¹