ABSTRACT
Malarial fever was in fact not unknown to the Indian people. India’s acquaintance with it can be dated back to the Vedic past, for some of the earliest references to this ailment occur in the Atharva Veda. The Atharva Veda classifies the fever according to the periodicity of its attack, i.e. sadandin or quotidian, tritiyakam or tertian, and vitrtyiyan or quartan. 1 It also classifies the fever according to season: sitam or winter, graisman or summer, varsikam or monsoon. 2 It appears from the Atharva Vedic evidence that such fevers were common in regions like Gandhara, Anga and Magadha. 3 In all probability even the relations between mosquito and malaria were not unknown to the Vedic people, for the text gives details about mosquitoes such as the needle-like proboscis or kusala, the bloody mouth or lohitasyam, and visiting the dwellings in the dusk or salahparinrtyantisayam. 4 There is also reference to the use of odorous or fumigating medications to ward off the insects. 5
