[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Science, technology and education](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science) › [Hindu Medicine](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948) › c8.185 # Hindu Medicine c8.185 Hindu Medicine c8.185 - **Language:** English ### [c8.185](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.185) The immigrant Aryans practised the burial of the dead. Subtropical hygiene requires a hasty and rather unceremonious disposal of the dead, which does indeed prevail on the Indian cremation grounds even to this day. The infectious, defiling substance of the corpse, reaching quick decomposition, could be handled only by the most impure class of human beings, the Cāṇḍālas, defiled by their very descent and way of living; these, in attending to the funeral pyres, could not incur any additional pollution by handling inauspicious matter. In view of the difficulties of the subtropical climate, and the complete absence of any device for preserving easily putrifying matter, in view of the strict rules on avoiding contact with any defiling substance, enforced by severe punishment and involving possible expulsion from one's caste, it seems incredible that any anatomy at all could have sprung into existence. It had to fight against all the rules of archaic hygiene, couched in superstitious warnings about threatening hosts of malignant monsters and demons. An approach to research concerning the structure of the human organism comparable to that celebrated by Rembrandt's painting should have been quite impossible for Hindu students. Yet it did exist to some extent, and was practised, though stealthily, according to an ingenious method taught by Suśruta (III, 5): - [Previous: c8.184](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.184) - [Next: c8.186](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.186) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8) ## Cites (1) - [Suśrutasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.susruta-school.susruta.3.5) — Suśruta & Nāgārjuna (siddha/alchemist), Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.185](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.185) · Pramāṇa