ABSTRACT
In the Ayurvedic Compendium by Caraka (Carakasamhita), the chief medical theoretician, Punarvasu Atreya, advises an assembly of philosophers, “Do not let yourselves become embroiled in complex arguments and counter-arguments nor let yourselves pretend that truth is obvious and easy to attain if one adheres to a single philosophical position.”1 Although Caraka’s Compendium is one of the most influential medical treatises in South Asia, in this book we will see that Punarvasu’s advice to eschew “complex arguments” was rarely heeded. The Compendium is generally said to date from the third or second century B.C.E., although it went through several centuries of revision subsequently. During the same period, many primary issues in Indian philosophy were also being debated, including the problems of salvation, selfhood, rebirth and karma. One of these contentious issues was the question of how the human being develops.
