This edition has no ISBN.

This work by Prof. J. Fillizat is a treatise on the development of Indian Medical Tradition. It starts with a discussion about the legends concerning Ayurveda and after dealing with the traditions of the two major texts, those of Caraka and Susruta, sums up the essential doctrines of all the texts available today. This is followed by a discussion on the pre-Aryan and Indo-Aryan data on medicine, juxtaposed with similar data from the Avesta. Further it deals with the Vedic data on Pathology, Anatomy and Physiology leading to a discussion of the relationship between the Veda and Ayurveda. The author also makes a comparative study of the doctrine of wind as adumbrated in India and as found in a Greek text, followed by a critical examination, from the point of view of the medical doctrine of the Timaeus and corresponding data found in Indian medical texts. Finally, he takes up the specific question of contracts between India and Greece, before Alexander, wherein Persia was the intermediary.

Prof. Filliozat's finding on India's contacts with Persia and Greece before Alexander as also with the Accadian civilization are bound to evoke deep interest in our country. We hope that this classic, now available to a large number of our countrymen, will help focus their attention on the essentials of a science, which though quite ancient, is equally modern, as it is still being widely practiced in our country as also in neighbouring countries like Ceylon.