The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.55

c9.55

Leaving aside banal terms such as the ones which denote organs like the heart, feet or hands, there are certain others which deserve to be studied, because in medicine they have become technical terms, while retaining a great part of their old Vedic value. They correspond to Vedic notions which have remained as formative elements in the classical doctrines of the doctors. They can be divided in two groups: names of organs or of the regions of the body and names of the substances which compose the body. From the first group we will retain only those which denote the organs or regions playing a specially important and characteristic rôle in the physiological conceptions of Āyurveda: the canals and the vulnerable points.