The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s2.62

c7.s2.62

This theory is a tissue of hypotheses which cannot stand at all. It has been conceived chiefly by virtue of an already conceived Vedic interpretation. Hertel has not been the first who tried to see everywhere in the Veda, only one essential theme. The old mythologists found everywhere in it the storm, Regnaud the soma, Hertel always the fire³. The mere fact that each of these systems has been defended is sufficient to demolish all of them together, because it proves that the storm, the soma and the fire, all three play a considerable role and in consequence it will not be possible to accord exclusive importance to any of them. In any case, to a reader not informed about the Avesta, the drug Nasu does not appear to be of igneous nature. It is variously qualified but it is under the hideous form of an insect that it is shown by the Videvdāt (VII. 2 & 5; VIII. 16 & IX. 26) and this form particularly suits it because this is the form of the flies of corpses, because it is precisely the drug of the corpses.⁴ Moreover, as we will see, it is not a disease but an eventual cause of disease. The fact that the yákṣma and the drug are successively expelled from all the limbs of the body, cannot establish their community of origin; this is the usage in all cases of evil impregnation and it is not found solely in India and Iran.