The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.74

c6.74

texts in Chinese talk of a certain *Tche lo kia* or *Tche le*, i.e., Caraka or Cara, who was the doctor of the king Kaniṣka. This fact has been simultaneously recognised by Sylvain Lévi¹ and by Takakusu.² The first source, the *Tsa pao tsang king*³, (which, in Sanskrit reads *Saṃyuktaratnapiṭakasūtra*) is an anthology of tales translated in Chinese, in 472 or a little later, by Ki Kia ye and T'an Yao. It refers only to the friendship of Kaniṣka for his doctor who by his advice keeps him protected from all diseases. The second source, the *Fou fa tsang yin yuan tchouan*⁴, is said to have been translated by Ki Kia ye and T'an Yao; but H. Maspero has shown that the work in its present form is a forgery, composed in China on the lines of other works, towards the middle or the end of the VIth century.⁵ One cannot, therefore, give any credit to the details given in this work, concerning the relations of Caraka and Kaniṣka, the former himself offering his services as a doctor to the king, and by means of clever obstetrical moves, twice saving the queen on her death-bed while in the throes of delivery¹, leaving the king who did not pay much attention to his advice and retiring from the world. It is necessary at least that these details be confirmed by a reliable source. In any case, the fact of the presence of Kaniṣka in the court of Kaniṣka could be true, as it is also attested elsewhere and for the moment, this is all that matters here for fixing the date of the revision by Caraka of the text attributed to Agniveśa. But we cannot be sure that the legend of Kaniṣka has not placed in the court of this prince a celebrity of another epoch, either older, or more recent. It is true that the *Tsa pao tsang king*, translated in Chinese only about three hundred years after the reign of Kaniṣka, existed in Sanskrit before and had, therefore, been composed at a date quite near to that of Kaniṣka. The memory of the real contemporaries of this prince could have been faithfully preserved till then and, in any case if it were the question of a more recent author, the Caraka in question could not have lived a long time after the IInd century.