The Nature of the Whole Holism in Ancient Greek and Indian Medicine

CONTENTS Foreward by Dominik Wujastyk vii Preface ix Introduction xi CHAPTER ONE Historical Background to Ancient Medicine and Philosophy 1 Philosophical Background to Ideas and Themes Found in the Treatises 3 Caraka Samhita in context 24 Organization and Context 26 Philosophical background to Caraka and Early Indian Medicine 33 Similarities and Differences between Caraka and the Hippocratic Corpus 41 CHAPTER TWO A Survey of Evidence of Holism in the Hippocratic Corpus and in Caraka Samhita 47 The Holistic Approach of Ayurveda 70 CHAPTER THREE Food and Digestion, Health and Disease 83 Pathological Digestion 113 Ayurvedic Concepts about food, Nutrition and Disease in Caraka Samhita 127 A comparison of Therapeutic Regimens for a condition of Cxcess 136 Conclusion 140 CHAPTER FOUR Holism in the Concept of Humours 143 The Hippocratic View of Humours 145 The Concept of Tridosa in Caraka Samhita 157 Characteristics of the Hippocratic Humours 171 Conclusion 206 CHAPTER FIVE Discussion 213 Glossary 219 Appendix 225 Bibliography 227 Index 235