The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.83

c15.83

The Indian medical texts are well acquainted with the phenomenon of demoniac possession, which gives rise to diseases. In these texts it is called *graha*, "seizure". A belief in such "seizure" belongs to universal folklore. It will therefore be in vain to observe that it is found several times in the Accadian manual, which frequently indicates that if the patient presents such and such a symptom or if such and such a foreboding takes place, then the "hand" of such and such a god "is on him", or that such and such a god or demon "has seized him or her". On the other hand, the data of Sanskrit texts, summarised by us, do not relate to the diagnosis of possession, but other parts of the main texts in Sanskrit give such diagnoses based on symptoms similar to those which establish demoniac possession in the eyes of the Accadian doctors, and these parts, as those which describe forebodings, also have a separate place in the teaching of classical Indian medicine. In fact they do not belong to the fundamental doctrines of the latter, which invoke only those causes of diseases that are purely natural, except in the case of infantile and psychic troubles. They derive their inspiration from another current of ideas, attested since the Veda, and which has imposed itself on Indian doctors, even though they had mainly sought to constitute a rational system of explaining the diseases. Their effort to bring the case of possession back to their ordinary natural explanations, while supposing that the demons are only one cause among others for disturbing the organic elements, appears only later.¹ Exactly like diagnosis by observing presages, the diagnosis of "seizure" by the demons or gods is not an integral and primitive part of the Indian medical system. They are admitted here and more largely than the divinatory prognoses, but they are not incorporated therein more intimately.