The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.141

c8.141

*Balāsa* designates in medicine several ailments possessing the common characteristic of manifesting themselves in the shape of swelling and the word also serves as a synonym of *kapha* and *śleṣman*, which denote the aqueous element of the organism. The *balāsaka* (equivalent of *balāsa*) is, according to Suśruta (Utt., IV-8), an ailment affecting the white of the eye, wherein can be easily recognised the superficial cyst of the conjunction.² The *balāsa* of the *Atharvaveda* can have no relation with this cyst. The *balāsa* represents once again in Suśruta (Nid., XVI-53) the suffocating oedema of the throat.³ Lastly among fevers, Suśruta knows one, which he does not describe but which he calls *vāta-balāsaka*⁴ and which, he says,