The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.85

c15.85

Moreover, there are certain analogies of detail between Accadian and Indian diagnoses of demoniac "seizure" of children. These analogies are sufficiently close between the 40th tablet of the Accadian manual and texts like the *Kumāra-tantra*. On both sides, a certain number of described symptoms are the same; this can be sufficiently explained by the fact that it is a case of morbid phenomena actually observed among sick infants, but at the same time on both sides diagnosis often depends on the age, in days or in months, of the infant at the time of the attack and a "seizing female spirit" is denounced as being responsible for this trouble. On the Indian side, the mention of the "seizing female spirit" (*grāhi*) goes much higher than the medical texts which describe the symptoms of its presence; it is already found in the *Ṛgveda* (X, 161, 1).²