A History of Indian Medical Literature v2.c33.252

v2.c33.252

²³³ Compare the description from a tantrāntara in Dalhaṇa's commentary and in the Madhukośa ad Mādhavanidāna 55.16–17. Agnirohiṇī is an incurable and fatal disease, due to all the three doṣas. Singhal c.s.: a type of lymphadenitis resembling bubonic plague. Many āyurvedic physicians (see, for example, P.S. Amśumān, 1994; N. Saxena, 1995: 126) are less cautious and equate agnirohiṇī with plague. The Dutch traveller J.H. van Linschoten noted that the plague was unknown to the Indians (see Burnell and Tiele I, 239–240). See on plague in India: R.H. Cassen (1978): 81–83; R.K. Chandrahas, A.K. Krishnaswami and C.K. Rao (1974); N. Chevers (1886): 85–95; A. Hirsch (1881): 359–361; J.V. Karve and E.R. Sundararajan (1935); R.P. Misra (1970): 83–91; S.C. Seal and K.C. Patnaik (1963); H.E. Sigerist (1961): 129; G. Sticker (1910): 88–91. See on the history of plague, for example: E.H. Ackerknecht (1963): 6–19; M.W. Dols (1974); V. Fossel (1903): 749–773; R. Hare (1967): 116–117; G. Sticker (1910). See on the history of vaccination against plague in India: H.I. Jha (1967). A different disease, called rohiṇī, is described in the Carakasaṃhitā (Sū.18.34–36). The Bhelasaṃhitā (Sū.26.24; Si.2.2) is acquainted with a disorder called rohiṇikā, which is divided into four types. Compare the interpretation of Bhela's batālikā as plague. Jyotir Mitra (1985: 238–239) suggested that the disease called ahivātaka, mentioned in Pali literature, may have been plague.