The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.120

c6.120

The *Suśruta*- and the *Caraka-saṃhitās* have, as a whole, the same contents. Their divisions are identical or analogous. The same is the case for their theoretical and practical data, but the *Suśruta-saṃhitā* is much more rich in the field of surgery than the *Caraka-saṃhitā*. Both of them generally present their teaching in an extremely condensed form. But because of the abundance of matter, they are, nevertheless, voluminous. They profess a rational system which excludes magic and mysticism. They invoke the intervention of demons only in special cases: delirium of possession and the diseases of children. Ordinarily they explain the state of health and of disease by the interplay of constitutive elements of the organism, of the alimentary and general regimes and by the influences of time and season. It is only in the case of certain therapeutic prescriptions, or in the case of ceremonies connected with birth that religion and magic are brought in.