The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c3.2

c3.2

The work proper starts with a discussion about the legends concerning Ayurveda and after dealing with the traditions of the two major texts, those of Caraka and Suśruta, sums up the essential doctrines of all the texts available today. This is followed by a discussion on the pre-Aryan and Indo-Aryan data on medicine, juxtaposed with similar data from the *Avesta*. The next three chapters deal with the Vedic data on Pathology, Anatomy and Physiology leading, in the next chapter, to a discussion of the relationship between the Veda and Ayurveda. In the seventh chapter the author makes a comparative study of the doctrine of wind as adumbrated in India and as found in a Greek text. This is followed by a critical examination, from the point of view of medical doctrine, of the *Timaeus* and corresponding data found in Indian medical texts. The last chapter takes up the specific question of contacts between India and Greece, before Alexander, wherein Persia was the intermediary. This is confirmed in a striking manner by showing that these contacts had also been maintained with the Accadian civilisation.