The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.97

c6.97

This does not at all signify that the author of the revised version of the *Agniveśatantra* lived at the time when the Vedic *saṃhitās* of the Carakas were elaborated but it can indicate that he belonged to their school, already favourable to medicine at a time when its rival used to attack the "cara doctors". In fact, the extremely brahmanic contents of the *Caraka-saṃhitā* evoke the idea that its editor was rather a Brahmin of a Vedic school than a doctor practising at the court of an Indo-Scythian prince. Moreover, if it is considered that another school of the *Yajurveda* was the Ātreya² school, one will be led to think that it was not because of mere chance that the chief masters of one of the great medical traditions are precisely an Ātreya and a Caraka. It is at least probable that the association of the medical tradition in question with the circles close to the Vedic schools was desired, as it could plausibly have been derived from the latter. If, therefore, Kaniṣka has had a Caraka for his doctor, it is nevertheless possible that a Caraka still older might have been the veritable editor of our actual *Caraka-saṃhitā*.