The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s2.115

c7.s2.115

of Agni Vaiśvānara is not formally described in the most ancient stratum of the Veda. However, the agreement of the two traditions, Iranian and Vedic, leads one to think that these notions of this function must be Indo-Iranian. Otherwise, it will be necessary to suppose, and without there being much basis for the same, a borrowing by Iran from India or reciprocally, or it will be necessary to admit that the Indo-Iranian concept of fire was such that it has, in the two countries, separately given rise to a similar application in physiology. But the last hypothesis will amount to saying that the Indian and Iranian notions of the rôle of fire in the organism do possess, in any case, a remote but common Indo-Iranian origin.