The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.69

c9.69

Macdonell and Keith have thought that, in the *Atharvaveda*, *dhamáni* probably denoted “artery” or “vein”, or more generally “intestinal canal”.¹ Not one of these three translations can be accepted. There is nothing to prove that in Vedic times distinctions were observed between arteries and veins and, on the contrary, there is every reason to believe that these distinctions were not known because they are found missing in the Ayurvedic medicine itself, which is, however, much more advanced. Moreover, while employing the word “artery”, an ambiguous term, it should be clearly explained whether it is to be understood in the old sense of “aerial canal” or in the modern sense of blood canal coming from the heart. As regards its translation as “intestinal canal”, it contradicts both the contexts and the commentator² and agrees only imperfectly with the general sense of the word in Sanskrit.