The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s2.2

c7.s2.2

In fact, the relations between India and Iran have been permanent since antiquity. Darius had established two satrapies in the basin of the Indus from the end of the 6th century B.C. and the annexation of a part of the Indian territory of the West could have taken place even in Cyrus' time. After the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander and the short occupation of these satrapies by the latter, India won them back. Yet the relations between India and the Iranian regions continued to be unbroken. The Iranian people of Upper Asia and of Iran itself, the Śakas, the Parthians and the Kuśānas conqurred vast territories of India several times and stayed there as rulers for long periods. The Sassanids also penetrated into the country or maintained regular relations with its sovereigns. From a very early date a continuous traffic with Iran and, across Iran, with the Western countries had been established which passed through regions now in Afghanistan and across the Iranian territory. We will refer back to this traffic when we discuss the eventual relations between the savants of India and those of the Hellenic world. In the intellectual sphere, the existence of Buddhism in Bactriana and in Sogdiana, on the routes which bypassed the Pamirs to the west and led to Central Asia and to China, is the clearest trace of the Indian contribution to the Iranian territories. Reciprocal proofs are available to show the Iranian influence on India from the epoch of Aśoka, in the middle of the IIIrd century B.C. and even from the Achaemenid period. One can, therefore, conclude that a part of the common heritage of India and Iran, especially in the domain of scientific ideas, in whose formation emulation, always and everywhere, plays a big rôle and which could not have been developed to such an extent in the prehistorical period, can be dated back to the period of the exchanges rather than to that of the original community.