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Rgveda and the Atharvaveda contains references to Ayurvedic medicines. Occasional references to diseases and their cures are to be 11 found scattered in Rgvedic texts. It is to the Atharvaveda that we are mainly indebted for our knowledge of Vedic medicine. Atharvavedic medicine is an amalgam of religion, magic and empirico rational elements. The religion of the Atharvaveda, is rather very primitive. Its world is full of shapeless ghosts and spirits of death. The primitive man is forced to realize his helplessness against the natural forces, the precariousness of his own existence is so constantly subject to death, he makes death and disease, failure of primitive mans regards everything he cannot explain as the work of a God. To him the abnormal, the unusual, is divine. 115

The unchartered region of mysterious phenomina is the realm of super natural forces. He is ever ready to see in any disease the use of super natural power. To an Atharvavedantin power was supernatural evoked by one of the hosts of demons by which he believed himself to be surrounded. These demons of disease are vague in outline and indefinite in number and were known by the names pisaca, raksasa, atrin and knava. Vedic people believed that diseases were caused by possession 12 by evil spirits, the anger of certain gods, by evil deeds, and the sorcery of enemies. The Atharvaveda deals with the treatment of disease (cikitsa) by advising propitiatory rites (swastyana), offerings (bali), auspicious oblations (mangala homa), penances (niyama), purificatory rites (prayascitta), fasting (upavasa) and incantations (mantras). This is the reason why the Atharvaveda is mainly considered a book of spells and appealing to the demon world. In Vedic medicine there is not a yet a marked difference between diseases and demons. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the diseases mentioned in the Atharvaveda. The most prominent feature of the Atharvaveda is the multitude 13 of incantations it contains. These are pronounced either by the 116

person who himself is to be benefited or more often by the sorcerer on his behalf. So the practice of medicine was in the hands of the priests. or sorcerers. The functions of priest and physician were combined in one and the same person. He may be called the priest physician, the Atharvan. 14 Even at the time of the Atharvaveda there were physicians and an elaborate pharmacopoeia dealing with the treatment of diseases 15 with drugs. The praise of the Atharvan the physician par excellence, is considered superior to all medicines prescribed by other physicians, and it implies the existence of two systems of medicine side by side: (1) the system of charms prescribed by the Atharvan (priest (2) physician); and the system of drugs prescribed by ordinary medical practitioners.