The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.100

c6.100

According to a tradition, which should now be examined, Caraka was the incarnation of the mythical serpent Śeṣa, who became a human being, in order to write under the name of Patañjali, the *Mahābhāṣya* and the *Yogasūtras*. This is apparent from one of the preliminary invocations of the *Āyurveda-dīpikā*, a commentary by Cakrapāṇidatta or Cakradatta (XIth century), on the *Caraka-saṃhitā*: "Adoration to the Lord of the serpents, the destroyer of the troubles of the mind, of speech and of body by Pātañjala¹, the *Mahābhāṣya* and the work reconstituted by Caraka."[²] A later author, Śivarāma, the commentator of the *Vāsavadattā*, describes Patañjali as a grammarian, a master of yoga and a doctor.³ The invocation of Cakradatta, however, does not signify that the three works are of one and the same author; the three authors could also have been considered as the three successive incarnations of Śeṣa. The tradition, which finds its echo in the invocation, does not, therefore, imply that the *Caraka-saṃhitā* was, at an earlier date, regarded as having been revised by the grammarian Patañjali himself or as belonging to the same period. One can, however, as we have seen, place Caraka in the IInd or in the Ist century B.C., which was the period of Patañjali."[⁴]