The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s2.175

c7.s2.175

The Avesta as it has reached us is not complete, but the analyses of its contents as found in their epoch and given by the Pehlavi books allow us to suspect a part of what has been lost and the cosmological statements of these books seem to reproduce the ideas which were, of yore, really Avestan. In fact, these books sometimes refer to the Avesta and every time we are unable to verify their reference in the actual Avesta, we cannot accuse them of having falsely ascribed to the sacred book the data which were unknown to it. False attributions could not have been accepted in a milieu and at a time when verification was easy. However, the interpretations of the authors could have been sometimes abusive and their indications cannot replace the original texts which have disappeared. We should, therefore, receive the Pehlavi complements of the Avesta with circumspection; on another side, it is certain that many of the ideas which were prevalent in ancient Iran were never included in the Avesta. There Pehlavi texts have not created *ex nihilo* all that they contain without having borrowed from the Avesta; a good part of their data can be Iranian and ancient and can even go back to the Indio-Iranian epoch, without ever having been Avestan.