Somatic Lessons: Narrating Patienthood and Illness in Indian Medical Literature

Glossary

161 Glossary årogya Health or freedom from disease. artha Material prosperity; one of the “three things” (trivarga). Arthaśåstra Name of a Sanskrit book on statecraft from the turn of the Common Era, traditionally attributed to Kauṭilya. Authorship of this book is a point of debate, and scholars also recognize Cåṇakya and Viṣṇugupta as possible authors (or redactors) of the work. åśaya Literally meaning “container” or “vessel,” this ayurvedic term is commonly translated as bodily organ. åtman Often rendered “self,” lexically åtman is a reflexive pronoun meaning “myself.” In Sanskrit literature åtman is sometimes used to refer to one’s physical self, that is, the body. It is perhaps more popularly known, however, as the unchanging element of every person that travels through saṃsåra and is, for some philosophical schools, such as Advaita Vedånta, equal to absolute reality (brahman). åyus Long life, longevity. åyurveda This is a Sanskrit compound meaning “knowledge for long life.” As a proper name, ≈yurveda refers to the knowledge system originating in the Sanskrit medical classics, which remains a ­ dominant 162 Glossary medical system in South Asia today and is an increasingly popular “alternative” medicine in other parts of the world as well. ayurvedic This is the adjectival form of åyurveda. The convention in this book has been not to capitalize, italicize, or place a macron over the ‘a’ because the term is not Sanskrit, but an English-language neologism. Bhela Name traditionally ascribed to the author of the Bhelasaṃhitå. bh¶tavidyå Demonology; one of the eight branches of ayurvedic medicine. brahmin Name of the first of the four Hindu social classes (varṇas), typically called the priestly class. Brahmins were throughout much of premodern Indian history the purveyors of Sanskrit knowledge of all sorts, though they are perhaps most often associated with Hindu religious knowledge, practice, and education. Bråhmaṇa This proper noun denotes the exegetical or explanatory segments of the Vedas that were developed as commentaries on the mantra portions of the Vedas (e.g., Ṛgveda). A Bråhmaṇa may be generally classified as a genre, or text type of Vedic literature (along with mantra, åraṇyaka, and s¶tra); it may also specify a Vedic text, in which case the name of the text is affixed with the title “Bråhmaṇa”—for example, the Śatapatha Bråhmaṇa. brahminism Many early scholars of Indian religions used this term to refer to, and thus distinguish, Vedic religion (i.e., the religion of the Vedas and the Upaniṣads) from later, allegedly more corrupt and degenerate forms of modern Hinduism. Along these lines the late nineteenth-century Indologist, Monier MonierWilliams , famous editor of the widely used Sanskrit -English Dictionary of 1899, wrote: “The term Hinduism . . . best expresses Brahmanism after it 163 Glossary had degenerated—to wit, that complicated system of polytheistic doctrines and caste-usages which has gradually resulted out of the mixture of Brahmanism and Buddhism, with the non-Aryan creeds of Dravidians and aborigines” (p. 84 in Hinduism [London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge , 1880]). Thus, early Indologists, such as Monier -Williams and F. Max Müller, to name two of the most well-known scholars, often told the story of the Hindu religion in India as a story of decline or degeneration from an originally pristine, IndoEuropean , Vedic beginning, with the “decline” into classical and medieval Hinduism (a highly contentious term in its own right) portrayed as an intrusion of non–Indo-European elements (the “creeds of Dravidians and aborigines,” as Monier-Williams wrote) into the older Vedic tradition. Cakrapåṇidatta Name of the eleventh-century author of the Āyurvedad¥pikå, a commentary on the Carakasaṃhitå, and the Bhånumat¥, a commentary on the Suśrutasaṃhitå. Caraka Name traditionally ascribed to the author of the Carakasaṃhitå. cikitså Therapeutics, the practice or science of medicine. Ḍalhaṇa Name of the twelfth-century author of the Nibandhasaṃgraha, a commentary on the Suśrutasaṃhitå. dharma This word means most basically “duty.” Yet it is important to note that dharma is notoriously difficult to translate into English because it carries a variety of meanings in Sanskrit literature, Hinduism , and across Indian history. Etymologically, the term comes from the Sanskrit verb √dhṛ, which means “to hold, bear, support.” Hence, and by extension, the idea is that in some sense human behavior done in accordance with dharma is essential to the...