The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.125

c6.125

³ Such is the opinion ascribed to Vāryovida in Caraka, Sūtr, XXV, 13: "Things and diseases of various types are born of the rasa, because the waters are rich with the rasas, waters about which it is said that they are the cause of creation" (rasajāni tu bhūtāni vyādhayaśca pṛthagvidhāḥ, āpo hi rasavatyas tāḥ smṛtāḥ nirṿtti-hetavaḥ). This opinion has antecedents from the Rg-Veda onwards, X, 129, 1 & 3, where water is described as the origin of things. The waters are also the primordial element according to a classic passage of Manu (I, 8 & 10). But the theory of Manu is a creationism, which is not the case with the one ascribed to Vāryovida.