[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) › c8.192 # Hindu Medicine c8.192 Hindu Medicine c8.192 - **Language:** English ### [c8.192](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.192) Medicine in ancient India as elsewhere had to face a much more unfavorable situation. Ancient Hindu astronomy, based on the lunar cycle, remained a self-contained special branch of traditional learning. With the impact of Hellenistic influence it was partly superseded by the system of Hipparchos and Ptolemy, based on the solar cycle, but there was no revolution in scientific standards. Algebra and geometry belong to the common stock of tradition in Indian antiquity, and even at an early stage they show the remarkable genius of the Hindu for abstract reasoning and pure intuition; however, they remained isolated fields of knowledge, concerned with their special problems. They did not reach the breath-taking height at which Greek mathematics, turning its methods to the task of explaining the structure of the universe and the movements of the celestial bodies, became applied mathematics in the garb of rational astronomy, anticipating Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. - [Previous: c8.191](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.191) - [Next: c8.193](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.193) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.192](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.zimmer-1948.c8.192) · Pramāṇa