The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.35

c8.35

This beautiful tribute shows that, for Caraka, the Aśvins are the gods of another age and this was also the feeling of the editor of the legend of Upamanyu in the *Mahābhārata*, because he thought that they must be addressed in the antique style, whereas everywhere else, the hymns which dot the epic, are in classical Sanskrit. On his side, Suśruta describes the legend of the head of the sacrifice cut by Rudra and replaced by the Aśvins (*Sūtra*, 1, 14). We should, however, note that all the mythical facts thus mentioned in the classical medical texts are not already found in the *Ṛgveda*. The legend of Cyavana (Cyavāna in the *Ṛgveda*) is here implied, but it is evident and it was quite natural that the medical texts have received the legends concerning the Aśvins from other mythological sources, which can be placed between the *Ṛgveda* and them. The references of Caraka relate chiefly to the epic form of these legends, although the origin of the epic form sometimes goes back to the *Black Yajurveda* as is, for example, the case with the disease of Soma which we will discuss later and also with the replacement of the severed head of the sacrifice (*Taitt. S*, VI, 4,9; *Kāṭh.*, XXVII, 4; *Maitr.*, IV, 6, 2).