The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.75

c6.75

¹ *Agniveśam (Agniveśyam) mahābhāgam Bharadvājaḥ pratāpavān, pratyapādayad āgneyam astram astravidām (dharmabhṛtām) varaḥ. agnes tu (agniṣṭuj) jātaḥ sa munis tato bharatasattama, bharadvājam tad āgneyam mahāstram pratyapādayat:* "The ascetic Bharadvāja communicated to the eminent Agniveśa ('sya) the weapon of Agni; the excellent one among the experts of weapons (among the supporters of the Law), the sage born of Agni (the bard of Agni) then communicated, O the best of Bharatas, this mighty weapon of Agni to the son of Bharadvāja."—*Ādip.*, 5107-5108. In brackets the variants of the Poona edn., 1,121, 6-7. The same facts are summarised still further, *Ādip.*, 6465. Reference is made by Droṇa to his studies under Agniveśa, *Ādip.*, 5172 (Sukthankar reads this time Agniveśa, yet the same reading should be kept in the three passages). And again *Ādip.*, 5524-5525, gives Agastya and not Bharadvāja as the teacher of Agniveśa. Last of all, Agniveśa is described by Droṇa (*Droṇap.*, 3476) as having received the magical protection of Bṛhaspati; he is not, therefore, the pupil of only Bharadvāja but this detail is of no importance to our subject.