The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.160

c8.160

¹ óko asya mūjavanta óko asya mahāvṛṣāḥ| yāvaj jātás ṭakmams tāvān asi báhlikeṣu nyocaráḥ||5|| It is possible that on account of a certain assonance, the memory of the takmán has probably given the sense of “fever” to the word ātaṅka which normally denotes “torment” and is derived from the root taṅk [known only to the grammarians as also its other derivatives, except prataṅkam (AV.) which has the sense of “furtively”]. Ātaṅka is used by Caraka (Cik., III-11) and Vāgbhaṭa (A.H., Nid., I-2), etc., in the sense of “torments” or of “disease”. Only the Rājanighaṇṭu and certain lexicographers make it a synonym of jvara, but the Rājani. itself (XX-1) takes it in the sense of “disease”. Caraka and Vāgbhaṭa, in the passage quoted above, also use it as a synonym of jvara but this is because they understand once jvara in the sense of “disease”.