Hindu Medicine c8.79

c8.79

Generally speaking, medical thinking, in analyzing man and his environment, in diagnosing diseases and prescribing therapies, sticks to a scientific non-theological view of the entities and energies concerned. Yet such a view is not at variance with the traditional habit of personification suitable for magic purposes; it has merely tended to become the most appropriate means of representing an enormous amount of factual knowledge with its theoretical superstructure. Through a uniform interpretation of experience it permits strict systematization. The heritage of antiquity, however, persisting in the atmosphere of daily devotional practice, is easily traced in the sacred epithets and characterizations of the principal forces which animate the human body.