Hindu Medicine c8.155

c8.155

Jolly’s survey of Hindu medicine reveals the peculiar disregard in which the lungs were held by Hindu medical tradition. It deals exhaustively with the contents of Caraka, Suśruta and their successors, and its index registers all the Sanskrit terms occurring in its ninety-two sections. Among the items of this index, amounting to more than fourteen hundred, the term "kloman" does not appear at all,—a most significant omission, which the circumspect author failed, however, to notice. Indeed, the fact that Hindu medicine and yoga teaching did not attribute any importance to the lungs has not hitherto drawn the attention of anyone dealing with these matters.