[Buddha-l] Re: Aama do.sa I

[Dan Lusthaus]

Hi Chris,

> Also, given the likelihood of falling ill on long journeys to foreign
lands, if
> I were a wealthy merchant organising a trading caravan or voyage - one of
the
> first people I'd want to take along with me would be a trusted physician.
(If
> the physician were literate he might usefully double up as a secretary and
> accountant as well.)
>
> All in all I think medical knowledge would have served as a fairly good
passport
> and ticket to travel.

Have you been watching a lot of old movies where the explorers' main
adversary is the local "witch doctor"? Or listening to Albert Schweitzer's
recording of Bach?

A lot of woulda, coulda, shoulda. The question is what evidence is there
that merchants carried along personal physicians (as opposed to maybe a
porter with some first aid knowledge)? That's an extra mouth to feed, to
protect from brigands (who might be tempted to keep a doctor for
themselves), etc. There is speculation, and then there is evidence. People
actually got around a lot more in the ancient world than most people today
suspect. Xuanzang walked from Chang'an to Nalanda without a personal
physician, though he visited Indian physicians when he got ill in India
(doesn't everybody?). That some medical information -- such as what I
suggested in a previous message, i.e., novel treatments for common
illnesses -- traveled is clear. That the Chinese became interested at a
certain point in the importation of Indian medicinal herbs is also on the
record. What I suggested would occur only rarely is the gross adoption of an
alternate medical system, or major component of a foreign system. Islamic
pulse theory (i.e., various ways of diagnosing illness based on a variety of
pulse types) being adopted into Indian medicine is an epochal event (for one
thing, it takes quite a bit of training).

>> etc. Transference of medical knowledge is something else.

> Medicines (and drugs) are and always have been an almost ideal object of
trade -
> light weight, valuable - (with a value that increases the further away you
get
> from the source), and for the most part non-perishable.  With trade of
> specialized goods knowledge of how to use those goods generally gets
traded or
> transferred as well. (That way you get to sell two things)

The most important weapon in the physician's arsenal is herbs (today we've
replaced that with pills, to the delight of the drug companies). Not all
could be dried or otherwise made ready for transport. Some were local and
had to be administered in relatively fresh form, or they grew in
insufficient quantities to export, or in remote places that could only be
harvested during a narrow window in the season. Again, it would be the more
common herbs for the more common diseases (or, alternatively, recommend the
same herb for myriad ailments) that traveled, e.g., cinnamon. But these need
not involve the transference of medical "systems" from one place to
another -- just specific cures that proved effective.

On your other points I think we are in agreement.

Dan