The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.53

c14.53

In this manual (I, 81, Littré, Vol. VIII, p. 203) is prescribed an ingredient used in the composition of a pessary, the "Indian medicine (variant-Median), which is for the eyes and which is called pepper (*peperi*)". The same prescription is found with slight variations in the manual *On the Nature of Woman* (32, Littré, Vol. VII, p. 365). In this latter passage, Littré has adopted *midikhoi* in his text and indicates the variant *endikhoi*; in the other he has adopted *indikhoi* and gives as variants *midikhoi* and *mildikhoi*. It is not doubtful that in the two cases, the correct readings be *indikhoi*, "Indian", because *peperi* is a derived form of the name of the pepper from Sanskrit *pippali* (or *pippalī*) and that pepper is an Indian product and not a Median one. One can even specify that it does not refer to pepper in general but to "long pepper" which is denoted by *pippali*, excluding the "round pepper", because the two Greeks just now quoted by us immediately add the mention of the "round" one (*strongulu*). Moreover, the indication that the medicine in question is meant for the eyes agrees very well with the teaching of the classical Indian medicine which frequently includes *pippali* in its formulae of collyriae.¹ Last of all, two other passages of the book, *On Woman's Diseases*, confirm that one should read "Indian" and not "Median" and one of them enables us to explain the wrong reading while giving a precious indication.