A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c10.8

v1.c10.8

Chapter four, called trividharogavijñānīya, discusses the three sources of knowledge about diseases: āptopadeśa (the teachings of authoritative persons), pratyakṣa (perception) and anumāna (inference) (4.3).¹⁹ These concepts are defined. Inference is explained as tarka (reasoning), supported by yukti (4.4).²⁰ Āptopadeśa has to come first, followed by pratyakṣa and anumāna. The topics included in āptopadeśa are listed (4.6). Examples of pratyakṣa and anumāna are given (4.7). Inference procures knowledge about the state of the digestive fire (agni), a patient’s strength (bala), his sense organs and manas, his vijñāna,²¹ rajas,²² and moha,²³ his tendency to experience anger (krodha), grief (śoka), joy (harṣa), satisfaction (prīti), and fear (bhaya), his equanimity (dhairya), stability (avasthāna), faith (śraddhā),²⁴ intelligence (medhā), alertness of mind (samjñā),²⁵ memory (smṛti),²⁶ modesty (hrī), mode of conduct (śīla), dislikes (dveṣa), unreliability (upadhi), reliability (dhṛti), submissiveness (vaśyatā), etc. (4.8).