The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.63

c9.63

In the epoch of the Atharvaveda, the mystical speculations on the similarity of the nāḍī of the human body with the cosmic regions had already commenced. But in this respect Ayurvedic medicine has not preserved the heritage, which has been passed on, in its entirety, first to the later Vedic texts and then to the texts of Yoga and Tantra. The hymn X, 7 on skambha, the “support” of the world poses, among other enigmas, the following: “The one, in whom, in the Man are closely reunited immortality and death, the one whose ocean and the canals are closely re-united in the Man, that support, utter its name, which one is it? The one of whom the four quarters are the main canals, the one on whom the sacrifice has advanced, that support, utter its name, which one is that?”¹ The Man referred to here is the Cosmic Man as also the man, both of whom have their basis in the same entity. From the macrocosmic view-point, the expression “canals” can be said to refer firstly to rivers and specially to celestial rivers and from the microcosmic point of view “ocean” can be said to refer to the totality of the organic liquids. The second mention of the “canals” implies that the canals of the body are understood as the currents of energy radiating from all sides in the world, such as the solar rays emitted in all directions, mentioned in the *Chāndogya-upaniṣad*, III-1, etc.