legal aspects of ancient Indian medicine

[Madhav Deshpande]

	I am not familiar with the legal position of doctors in ancient 
India.  However, a great deal of social information concerning th 
position of a Vaidya can be gleaned from several different types of 
materials.  For example, the texts like Carakasamhita contain a lot of 
material regarding the role of a vaidya in relation to society, perhaps 
from the point of view of the medical practitioners, though it also has 
a lot of critical material about false practitioners, e.g. chapter 29 
of Suutrasthaana in Carakasamhitaa, p. 181ff, ed. by Jadavaji Trikamji 
Acharya, Nirnayasagara Press, 1941.  On the other hand, 
there are a lot of verses found in the collections of Subhaazitas and 
works like the KaliviDambana of NiilakaNTha, and the Deshopadesha and 
Narmamaala of Kzemendra which provide us by way of criticism of the 
vaidyas an opposite point of view.  Here they are often presented as 
cheats who are bloodsuckers.  Consider the following:
	vaidyaraaja namas tubhyam yamaraajasahodara |
	yamas tu harati praaNaan vaidyaH praaNaan dhanaani ca ||
In many parts of India, Vaidya became a caste by itself, and other 
Brahmans refused to have marriage relations with them.
	
		Madhav Deshpande

On Wed, 13 Mar 1996, Elmar Stapelfeld wrote:

> Namaste,
> 
> could anyone help me in finding literature on the legal aspects of ancient
> Indian Medicine? How was a vaidya socially graded? Could wrong and fatal
> actions of his be penalized? In what ways do the modes of conduct vary
> between those lain down in the ayurvedic text (especially Caraka) and those
> for example in the niti-shastra?
> The first steps of my research have not been very fruitfull. Yajnyavalkya,
> Manu, Kautilya only have a couple of verses. Besides a few general
> statements, also Indologist (apart maybe from R.F.G. Mueller, who is also
> very much repeating himself) don't seem to show deeper interest in medical
> law and the position of the physicians. Or is there really nothing to find?
> 
> Elmar Stapelfeldt
> 
> 
> 
>