The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.94

c15.94

The passing of pepper, a product of South India, particularly of Malabar, in the hands of Greek doctors as an Indian medicine, is to be found in Hippocratic manuals, *On Woman's Diseases* and *On the Nature of Woman*.¹ The simultaneous passing of Indian medical teaching, on its side, is to be seen in the enunciation in the manual, *On Woman's Diseases*, of an Indian prescription on dentifrice alongwith a precept of alimentary hygiene.² These pieces of evidence, studied in relation with the facilities offered by the presence of Greek doctors in the Achaemenid court can explain, by means of the communication of doctrines creating at least some emulation, the concordances between Greek and Indian medicine during the Achaemenid period, i.e., before that of Alexander.³