The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.67

c15.67

The ninth chapter, *Gomayacūrṇa*, has an almost identical title with Chapter XII, *Gomayacūrṇīya*, although it starts with *cūrṇam śirasi yasyaiva śuṣkagomayasannibham* . . . and not like Chapter XII with *yasya gomayacūrṇābham cūrṇam mūrdhani jāyate*. Its only *raison d'etre* consists in taking up the first words of the text as is done in Chapter XII; it follows that the editing of Caraka carrying *gomayacūrṇa* immediately after *yasya* is surely more faithful, at least here, to the original account, whose beginning is altered by the *Bhela-saṃhitā* while guarding the sense and keeping intact the old title which retains the traces of the first form of this account. After a common verse, with some variants, the two texts become divergent, that of Bhela merely describes various clinical tables of bad prognostic.