Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c12.9

c12.9

§ 51. Fever :- At present about two-third of the death roll in India is, according to the statistical proofs, attributed to fever¹. In medical works also it is considered as the king of all diseases. In AV also the disease *takman* which corresponds to the later *jvara* "fever" is the most dreadful disease². In medicine the disease fever in human beings is considered as equal to the worst condition appearing in animals and nature such as madness in dogs, hollowness of trees, salt-desertness of soil and is frequently interwoven in myths. Thus it is said to have originated from Śiva's wrath-fire which became the frightful three-headed demon Virabhadra who disturbed the sacrifice of Dakṣa and even killed him and then harrassed the whole world in the form of fever with its companions nausea, joint-pains, headache, giddiness, fatigue, thirst, heat etc. ( AS 3.1.256; Su 6.39.8-14; Car 6.3.15-25; AHr 3.2.1 f.; Harita 264, 134 ). The wrath-fire (*kopāgni*, *roṣāgni*) reminds us of the heat in fever, just as in Vedic medicine *takman* is connected with the fire-god (*agni*)³.