The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.90

c15.90

In its origins the Accadian manual is very ancient, its eventual passage into India could, therefore, go back very high and one could be tempted to advance the hypothesis that it could be dated in the epoch in which there used to be communication between India and Mesopotamia, from the period of the Indus civilisation. However, the concordances with the Accadian manual are seen not only in the Vedic literature, not specially Vedic, it is true, but in much later Sanskrit texts, in most of the cases later than the Christian era in the form in which they have reached us; anterior only by a few centuries to the Christian era, if one is to go back to the common stock supposed by the accounts of Bhela, Caraka and Suśruta.