A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c17.33

v1.c17.33

J. Filliozat has argued that the use of the term cara is a shot at the rival school of the Carakas,105 who have not inserted anything similar in their saṃhitās, the Kāṭhaka- (27.4), Kapiṣṭhalakaṭha- and Maitrāyaṇīsaṃhitā, which relate a similar story about the impurity of the Aśvins and their purification by means of the bahiṣpavamānastotra, but without blaming them for being the physicians of human beings. 106 D. Chattopadhyaya rejects the interpretation of J. Filliozat and advances that the word cara does not refer to the Carakaśākhā at all, being simply a descriptive epithet of the Aśvins. 107 J. Filliozat’s suggestion that a comparison of the related passages in the recensions of the Black Yajurveda points to a connection between the Carakaśākhā and the practice of medicine 108 is equally unacceptable to D. Chattopadhyaya, 109 who postulates that the censuring of the Aśvins and of physicians in general is evidence of a changed attitude and a breaking away from the Ṛgvedic tradition, in which the Aśvins were extolled and invited to drink soma in the company of the other gods. 110