The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.7

c6.7

Caraka has the same thing to say concerning the origin of medicine and its transmission upto Indra (Sūtra, I, 4,5). Indra is said to have revealed it to Ṛṣi Bharadvāja, who was sent to him by all the well-known ṛṣis desirous of knowing the means of combatting diseases. Bharadvāja is said to have immediately communicated his knowledge to other ṛṣis. One of them, Ātreya Punarvasu is said to have subsequently trained six disciples: Agniveśa, Bhela, Jatūkarṇa, Parāśara, Hārīta and Kṣārapāṇi (ib., 29-30). Of these, Agniveśa is supposed to have been the first to compose a book for teaching (ib., 31). The *Caraka-saṃhitā* represents itself to the manual “composed by Agniveśa and reconstituted by Caraka”¹ and it claims to reproduce the actual words of Ātreya Punarvasu himself.