The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.172

c8.172

In classical medicine the word *rajanī* denotes sometimes the curcuma and at others the indigo. Curcuma being of clear-yellow shade cannot be in question in this hymn; Indigo, on the contrary, can be, with equal facility, qualified with black inasmuch as the same names are employed in Sanskrit to denote the black and the dark blue and it is we who, according to propriety, translate them as "blue" or "black". On the other hand, indigo is obtained by leaving the indigo plant to be fermented in water; therefore it seems likely that the word praláyana, "dissolution", refers to this process of extraction. In any case, *kilāsa* is evidently a disease of the skin which is characterised by decoloration; it is, therefore, an achromatism, a morbid phenomenon which can be produced by different causes and which is clearly described by the text by being associated with *kilāsa* and *palitá*, the "pale". Classical medicine ranges *kilāsa* among the *kuṣṭhas*, that is to say, skin-diseases (and not only leprosy, contrary to the common translation given by the dictionaries). Suśruta characterises it as follows: "The *kilāsa* also is a variety of skin-disease. It is of three types, due to wind, due to *pitta* and due to *śleṣman*. The difference between the skin-disease (the most serious, leprosy properly called) and *kilāsa* lies in the fact that *kilāsa* attains (only) the skin and does not ooze out. The one due to wind is circular, rose, rugose and disintegrates a great deal (desquamates). The one due to *pitta* is like the leaf of the rose-coloured lotus and is encircled by inflammation. The one which is due to *śleṣman* is white, smooth, thick and pruriginous. Among (all) these the one which appears in confluent circles, develops at an extremity and has red hair, is incurable as also the one which is burned by fire (cicatrisation of burning)".¹