The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s1.9

c7.s1.9

The discoveries of the Valley of the Indus, moreover, consist of several products which could have been used as remedies. The horns of a cervidae, the *sambar* (or *sābar* in Hindi, SKT. *Śambara*, *Rusa aristotelis Jerdon*) have been found without any other remains of the animal and consequently should have been collected for their own sake. Precisely similar horns are even now utilised in popular Indian medicine. Bitumen has also been found and this substance is included in scientific pharmacopoeia of Sanskrit, under the name of *Śilājatu*. Lastly cuttle-bones, which could also have had a medical use, were contained in pottery unearthed by Majumdar at Othwan-jo-Buthi.¹ The use of similar products in therapeutics unfortunately does not have any characteristic significance. It proves nothing concerning the medical knowledge of the people of the Indus Valley civilization. We cannot therefore form any idea of the same. The material remains of this civilization would suggest that this knowledge could have been in a sufficiently advanced stage, especially so because the discovery of the Indus seals in Mesopotamia shows the relations they had with the region where the Sumerians or the Babylonians had developed an important medical tradition from an early age. From the period of Mohen-jo-daro scientific exchanges have possibly taken place between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. This is all that we can say for the time being and as a consequence, when the Vedic Aryans entered India in the 2nd millenium B.C., they may have found there already developed medical notions, which were probably related to those of the Sumerians. At this moment it is impossible for us either to confirm or deny this theory, but we will be able to show that at the time of their arrival the Indo-Aryans carried with them, if not an elaborate science of medicine, at least ideas which have entered as elements in the formation of Āyurveda.