The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.65

c14.65

In any case, we see that sure paths and intermediaries, i.e., Greeks in the service of the Persians, being the functionaries of the Achaemenians who dominated both the Greek and the Indian lands, and may be Indians also, were there for assuring scientific communication between India and Greece before Alexander. Undoubtedly they did not suffice for making India largely known to the Greek public, nor did they suffice for making Greece known to the Indian public, but they were easily able to carry across the notions on which minds on both sides, whether by conscientious emulation or not, marked. This is the explanation of why there are, between Indian and Greek medicines, so very particular and precise similarities which are not easy to ascribe to chance. This is again why we come across, both in Greece and India, so many similar speculations during the same moments. If the two worlds, while knowing each other only in a vague manner, have brought the level of their science to the same level, it is because they communicated with each other on the under-side.²