Hindu Medicine c7.3

c7.3

In Vedic medicine there is not, as yet, a marked difference between diseases and demons; this distinction is developed later in the growth of classic medicine, which attempts to treat many maladies strictly along the lines of humoral therapy or through surgery. In the later periods, even though the demarcation between diseases and the realm of demonic powers remains undefined, only those diseases which to some extent defy rational treatment are treated by propitiation and magic. Diseases, in the Veda, are looked upon as possession by demonic personalities, or as visitations by the gods. Dropsy (jalodara: “water-belly”) is sent by Varuṇa, the god residing in the all-knowing, all-encompassing primal waters of the universe. He watches over the fulfilment of oaths and pledges which are sworn by taking the divine waters as witness, and punishes the perjurer by fettering his body with his threefold watery noose. Fever is sent and graciously taken away by Rudra-Śiva, the lord of ghosts and destructive forces.