legal aspects of ancient Indian medicine

[elmar at philosophie.uni-tuebingen.de]

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