The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c8.91

c8.91

In any case medical tradition has retained the idea that rājayakṣman is in correlation with sin as Dalhaṇa, commenting on the passage quoted above (Suśruta-saṃhitā, Utt., XLI, 2-4), concludes by saying: “It being so, it appears that the disease (in question) is born of a fault in one’s acts”.¹ Of course, it can be the result of physical activity but the expression *karma-doṣa* has a moral resonance which cannot be mistaken. On another side, tradition without losing sight of the notion that *rājayaksman* is so called because the king Moon had been its first victim, also gives another interpretation of this name. Vāgbhaṭa (*Aṣṭ.-s.* and *Aṣṭ-hṛd.*, *Nidāna*, V, 1-2) says that *rājayaksman* is called “diminution, drying up and the king of disorders”. As the king of constellations and of the twice-born had it in olden times and as it is king and *yaksman*, it is considered as *rājayaksman*.² It will be, therefore, necessary to translate this last expression as signifying *yaksmānām rājā*, “king of consumptions”. In his commentary on the *Ṛgveda*, Sāyaṇa also gives an abusive interpretation of the word as signifying *yaksmānām rājā*, “king of consumptions”, which corresponds to the expression, “king of diseases” (*rogarāja*) of Vāgbhaṭa.