xvii
goes towards proving the high antiquity of the Charaka.[1]
Absence of Pauranic mythologyAgain, only Vedic gods and mantras figure in the Charaka, not a trace of Pauranic mythology being discernible in it.[2] Charaka follows closely the Vedic authority[3] in counting the
number of bones in the human body; the- ↑ The Nyáya of Gotama enumerates 16 padárthas (categories), while Charaka under his (medical) disputation, वादमार्ग, mentions 44 categories (Vide Vimána. Ch. VIII. 22., also A. C. Kaviratna's Eng. trans. pp. 564-65). Bodas in his learned Introduction to the Tarkasamgraha of Annambhatta (pp. 12-14) places the aphorisms of Gotama and Kanada in the period between 400 B. C. to 500 A. D.
- ↑ The names of Krishna and Vásudeva occur in a salutation in the supplement added by Dridhavala. Chikitsita. Ch. 21. 92-93. ed. Gañgádhara). But Krisna-worship was in vogue at the time of Pánini; 4. 3. 98. See also Lassen's Alterthumskunde I. p. 648. Bühler also points out that "the earlier history of the puránas, which as yet is a mystery, will only be cleared up when a real history of the orthodox Hindu sects, especially of the Sivites and Vishnuites, has been written. It will, then, probably become apparent that the origin of these sects reaches back far beyond the rise of Buddhism and Jainism."—Intro. to "Apastamba," &c. p. XXIX.
- ↑ Namely 360; Sáríra. Ch. VII, 5. According to the Institutes of Vishnu "it (the human frame) is kept together by three
2
