The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s2.169

c7.s2.169

⁴ Here one could ask if the two names that Vayu gives himself (*Yast*, XV, 45) *fracara*, ‘marching forward’ and *aipicara*, ‘marching back’ do not correspond to the two forms of the organic wind, *prāṇa*, ‘which breathes forward’ and *apāna*, ‘which breathes below’, the second being specially that of the inferior or posterior part of the body as we will see. Of course linguistically the words differ completely as the Avestan root *car* responds to the Ved. *car* or *cal* which is more recent (cf., Wikander, op. cit., p. 79) and not to *an* but the corresponding ideas are comparable and are undoubtedly related.