The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.3

c6.3

THE PRINCIPAL and oldest texts of the classical Indian medicine are the *Saṃhitās*, the "corpus" said to be of Bhela, Caraka and Suśruta. The first has reached us in one single and incomplete manuscript. The other two are not available in their original form because we know that they have been revised by more recent authors. None of these three texts represents a first effort at systematic description of medical science; on the contrary, all the three suppose an already established tradition, to whose foundation they have not contributed. They limit themselves merely to collecting the facts of the above-mentioned tradition and to teaching it. This tradition claims to have links with the Veda; it is that of the *Āyurveda*, of the "science of longevity", which is considered sometimes as a "secondary part" (*upāṅga*) of the *Atharvaveda*¹ and sometimes as a "secondary Veda" (*upa-veda*) of the *Ṛgveda*.² Theoretically the *Āyurveda* consists of eight "parts" or "articles" which are so well-known as its characteristic members that the expression "eight parts" (*aṣṭāṅga*) is currently used to denote the science of medicine. The texts of Bhela, Caraka and Suśruta, though not observing it, are aware of this division. This division has been popular chiefly with more recent authors.