The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.105

c8.105

*Viśalyaka* is more difficult to explain. The commentary of Sāyaṇa followed by Shankar Pandit, reads *viśalpaka* or *visarpaka*² and it would mean erysipelas, the serpiginous disease. This reading is quite possible because in various Indian scripts the groups *lpa* and *lya* are easily mixed together. On the other hand, in an enumeration of diseases *viśalyaka* is found alongside *aṅgabheda* and *aṅgajvara*, the “fever of limbs”, (evidently the local fever of lymphangitis, *AV.*, IX, 8, 5).