Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c8.84

c8.84

4. Persia and Arabia :— From the Aryan antiquity originated particularly the oldest Indo-Persian terms for physician and medicine ( Bhiṣaj—Bizişk, Bheṣajam—baṣazem ), for magic spells ( mantra—mathra ), some names of diseases and the most common names of parts of human body. Further, we find the Bactrian physician Kāṅkāyana ( Bāhlikabhiṣaj )⁸ referred to in Caraka ( 1. 12. 5, 4. 6. 21 etc. ) as well as in the Bower MS ( 2. 935 ). The Persian medicinal substance Pārasīyayaunī ( Cf. § 5 ) is mentioned in Siddhayoga. Earlier than that Hingu (Asafoetida) occurring in Suśruta and other works as well as the orange ( Nāraṅga ) must have been imported from Persia. In the middle age (see § 3) the calcination and extensive therapeutic use of quicksilver and other metals, the opium, the root of Bertram, the feeling of pulse in medical examination appear to have reached India from Arabia or Persia. Later imports of medicinal substances from Persia need not be considered here. On the other hand, Indian works on medicine were translated into Persian already in the time of Abbasids or perhaps of the Sassanians. These are not available at present. Then followed Arabic translations. Except Caraka and Suśruta, the names of translated Indian authors are difficult to identify. Yet the Arabic accounts of the contents of these works and quotations therefrom in Razi and other Arabic writers show that they deal with purely Indian product⁹. Very much Indian material is found in the preserved Persian work of Abu Mansur Muwaffaq on pharmacology (10th century). The author himself had made a scientific journey in India and cites much from Indian works¹⁰ which are indeed unknown.