The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.103

c8.103

¹ cf., V. Henry, *La Magie dans l’Inde antique*, 2nd edn., Paris, 1909, p. 182. *RV.*, I, 50, 11, 12, invokes the Sun, *Sūrya*, against the “ailment of the heart”, *hrdroga* and jaundice and contains the verse taken up by the *AV.* for sending jaundice to the parrots, etc. The substitution in the *AV.* of *hrdyotá* by *hrdrogá* of the *RV.*, clarifies the innate uncertain sense of *hrdrogá*. This term has been interpreted as designating “cardialgia” whose mention in correlation with jaundice will be quite out of place. It is more probable that in the *RV.*, the Sun is invoked directly for chasing away the disease because it is he who causes it as proved to the Vedic sorcerers by the analogy of the morbid tint with that of his brilliance, It is true that a linking up of *hrdyotá* to the root *dyut*, “to break”, which is said to be found in the *AV.*, IV, 12, 2; 23, 5 and XII, 3, 22, is desired here, but another interpretation of the passages, by means of *dyut*, “to shine” (in a pejorative sense), is also possible. Besides if *hrdyotá* were “the pain which breaks the heart”, how is it that jaundice is brought alongside this disease. Sāyaṇa in his commentary says that *hrdyotá* “burns the heart” (*hrdayam santāpayati*) which seems to indicate that he recognises in the word rather the root *dyut*, “to shine”, than the root *dyut*, “to break”; however *santāpayati* can also be understood in the sense of “torments”. Whitney adopts the translation “heartburn”. Beside *hrdyotá* is found, several times, in the *AV.*, *hrdayāmayá* as a synonym.