The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.179

c8.179

² *kumbhīkā-bīja-pratimāḥ piḍakā yās tu vartmajāḥ|* *ādhmāpayanti bhinnā yāḥ kumbhika-piḍakās tu tāḥ||*—*Suśr.*, Utt., III-8. The etymology of *kumbhīkā*, manifestly derived from *kumbhī*, “pitcher”, “vase”, and literally denoting “small pitcher”, is well-explained by the fact that once the vesicles are open, they transform themselves, especially when they are situated on a swollen tissue, into small craters—comparable to small receptacles. It cannot be admitted that they have received the name *kumbhīkā* because of their analogy, at the commencement of their evolution (when they are still a protrusion) with the grains of the *kumbhīkā* plant because the other quoted passage of Suśruta compares them to a totally different type of grain, even though it gives them the same name. Moreover, the use of *kumbhīkā* as the name of a disease as also the use of *kumbhī* to denote the pitcher goes back to the *Atharvaveda*, whereas its use in Botany does not seem to be known before Suśruta. It is rather the name which has caused the grains of *kumbhīkā* to be selected as the element of comparison. The grains of *kumbhīkā* are simply the extremely small grains of a gigantic lentil of water resembling a lettuce.