ayurveda pearson

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Hindu Medical Practice in Sixteenth-Century Western India: Evidence from PortugueseSourcesAuthor(s): M. N. PEARSONReviewed work(s):Source: Portuguese Studies, Vol. 17, HOMAGE TO CHARLES BOXER (2001), pp. 100-113Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41105162 .

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HinduMedicalPracticenSixteenth-CenturyWesternndia:Evidence rom ortugueseourcesM. N. PEARSON

There remany tudies f yurvedicmedical racticen ndia n theperiodbefore he rrival fEuropeans, utmost fthese re basedonnormativetexts,uch s those fSusruta ndCaraka.1These tellusquite lot aboutwhathealersntheayurvedic ystemwere meant o do, and the sorts finformationheyreceivedfromtheirtexts,but they give almostnoinformationn actualpractice;notherwords, id healers ollow he exts,or was thererather mixture f informationrom he texts nd folkknowledge, ith hese wo nturn eingnfluencedyempiricalbserva-tion?A. L. Bashamprovides cautious ummaryfthis: The instructionsof thetextbooks an onlybe taken s normative,nd not as having eenuniversallypplied'.2Turningo westernndia,we knowveryittle bouthealth are nGoabefore hePortugueseonquest.Figueiredo laims that ongbefore hePortuguesell branches fknowledge,ncludingmedicine, ere aughtninstitutionsf higher earning,nd in settlementsf brahmins. heseattractedtudentsrom ar nd wide.3His informations so fragmentaryas to be of ittle se,forwe cannot istinguishetweenmedicine nd otherscholarly isciplines.We can assume that healers n Goa were oftenbrahmins,nd theirmore ook-based ractice assupplementedy ocallyproven ecipesnd nostrumsispensed yvillagewomenhealers.We havealmostno evidence fhospitals, r of state nvolvementn health are,before he oming fthePortuguese. ll we have s one referencefromheeleventhentury)o a houseofmercy, hich rovided elief or hepoor,1See, for example, O. P. Jaggi's numerousworks in the series History of Science andTechnology n ndia',especiallyMedicine n Medieval ndia (Delhi:AtmaRam, 1977),onyunanimedicine, nd IndianSystem fMedicine Delhi: AtmaRam, 1974),on ayurvedicmedicine.Thebest modern ummarys byA. L. Basham, The Practiceof Medicine in Ancient nd MedievalIndia', in Asian Medical Systems:A ComparativeStudy, ed. by Charles Leslie (Berkeley:University f CaliforniaPress, 1976), pp. 18-43. Two older, classic, accounts of ayurvedicmedicinebywesternorientalists tillhave detail of greatvalue: JeanFilliozat,The ClassicalDoctrineof ndian Medicine: ItsOrigins nd itsGreekParallels Delhi:MunshiramManoharlal,1964); HeinrichRobertZimmer,Hindu Medicine (Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityress,1948). For the state of researchtoday on traditional ndian medicinesee Studies on IndianMedical History, d. byG. JanMeulenbeldand DominikWujastyk Groningen: orsten, 987);

most relevant o thisstudy s T. J. S. Patterson,The Relationshipof Indian and EuropeanPractitionersfMedicinefrom heSixteenth entury', p. 119-29.Basham,p. 25.JohnM. de Figueiredo,AyurvedicMedicine in Goa accordingto huropeansources in theSixteenth nd Seventeenth enturies',Bulletinof theHistoryof Medicine,58 (1984), 225- 32(p. 226).

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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA IOIsick and pilgrims,stablished ya chiefminister f a local king n GoaVelha.4We do have considerablenformationbout practice s opposed totheorys regards unani r Muslimmedicine. uch nformations quitecopious n theMemoirs fbothBaburandJahangir,nAbulFazl's Ain-iAkbari, nd in manyotherPersian exts such as the Tibbi-Sikandari,written nder hepatronage f SikandarLodi. Our concernhowever swithHindupractice,nd here t seems hatPortugueseecords rom hesixteenthenturyrovide s with ccountswhich recomparableo thosefromheMughal mperorsnd otherMughal ources, utwhich elate oHindupractice. o farthesePortugueseourceshave been ittle tudied,but t is mycontention, hich hopewill be confirmedythe materiallaternthis rticle,hat heyreextremelyaluable s eyewitness ccountsofactualmedical ractice.This s nottosaythatPortugueseources anbeusedas 'objective' nd'neutral' ccounts.There s first heobviousandgenerallycknowledgeddifficultyfusing he records f a colonialpowerto describe hesocietywhich t dominated.nparticular, ormanOwenhas reminded s of thedifficultiesf historical ccountsof illness.All of theseare of coursetransmittedhrough ulture, n our case Portuguese.Also, diseasesthemselvesremutable,o that he ourcesmightedescribingsyndromewhichno longer xists, uchas themysteriousnglish weating icknesswhich ameand went nthesixteenthentury.5urther,ach account sbased on assumptionsbout what llnessmeant, omething ery ifferentinsixteenth-centuryoa as comparedwith oday.Finally,ome diseasesare more dramatic cholera specially) han others.Owen distinguishesbetweencrisismortalitynd backgroundmortality. he former,hedramatic and much described causes of mortality,nclude cholera,smallpox, nfluenza nd various fevers', uch as malaria and typhoid.However, erhaps hree-quartersf deathswere nfact ausedbythe essglamorous ackground ategoryfailments,uch as tuberculosis,ysen-terynd nfantileiarrhoea.6There s anotherwholecategory fminefieldsn the area of medicalhistoryngeneral.t is tooeasyto be overlynfluencedywhatwe thinkare modernmedicalmethods,ndtotest hepast naccordancewithwhatwe, social historianswithonlya spotty xpertisen medicine nyway,4JooManuelPacheco igueiredo,Goa Pr-Portuguesa',tudia, 2 1963), 39-259; nd13/ia (1965), 05-225p. 160).remana rauaei, ne tructuresf verydayife, neLimns fwerosswie, ivilizationnaCapitalism,5th-i8th entury, London: ollins, 981), p.78-88;E. L.Jones, heEuropeanMiracleCambridge:ambridge niversityress, 981), p. 140-41.introductioninueatn ndDisease n outheast sta: xplorationsnoctal,Medical ndDemographic istory,d. byNormanG. Owen (Singapore: xfordUniversityress, 987),pp. 4and 12.



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IO2 M. N. PEARSONthinks correct' nd scientific'ractice oday.AndrewWearclaims hatinhisedited ollection f tudies:The nineteenth-ndtwentieth-centuryalues fthemedical rofessionhichnpasthistoryf medicine adbeen pplied o earlier eriodso condemnmpirics,uacks,magicalndreligious ractitionersavebeendiscarded.ntheprocess much ichermedical orld asbeen ncovered.7

All thissaid, it s stillmycontention hat severalPortuguese ccountsofHindu medicine n western ndia inthesixteenth entury ave considerablevalue. amnot,ofcourse, enturingowrite historyf Hindu medicalpracticet this ime;mymuchmoremodest im smerelyo demonstratethe value of Portuguese ecords,n the absenceof indigenousnes,forknowledgebout certain iseases n certain reas atthis ime.Norindeedis Hindu'quite ppropriate,or nfactwe aredealingwith ourceswhichimplicitlyredescribingota unity utrather ealth are which ariedntwoways.First, ursources ften ifferentiateetween ifferentegions,so thatwe haveHindu healers nMalabardealing uitedifferentlyithdisease scomparedwithCanarins rom he reaaroundGoa,ascomparedagain withGujaratipractice.Second,we are sometimesnformed f'brahmin' ractice,nd this resumablyefersomorebook-based ealingmethods;he GreatTradition' fHindumedicinef ne ikes, s comparedwith a host of locally-derivedechniques nd drugswhich could beconsideredo beregionally-specificolk raditions.We have an excellent escriptionf this atter, nd byfarthe mostimportant,ort fhealingnTavernieri ccount fhistravelsn southernIndia nthemid-seventeenthentury.Wecan assume hat hiswouldalsostand or n accurate escriptionfGoanpractice.As forthecommonalty,when the rainshave fallen nd it is the season forcollectingplants,mothers f familiesmaybe seen going n themornings rom he townsandvillages o collectthesimpleswhichtheyknow to be specifics ordomesticdiseases. tis true that in good towns there are generally ne or two men who have someknowledge fmedicine,who seat themselvesachmorningnthemarket-placer at acorner f the street nd administer emedies, ither otionsor plasters, o thosewhocome to ask forthem.They first eel thepulse, and whengiving hemedicine,forwhichthey akeonlythe value of two farthings,heymumble ome wordsbetweentheir eeth.8

7 introduction', n Medicinein Society:HistoricalEssays,ed. byAndrewWear (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityress,1992),p. 2. Bashamwrotedisparaginglyf untrained uacks andcharlatans' p. 25) in ancient ndia, but todaywe would be reluctant o use such judgmentalterms. or a general ccountofvillagepracticenGoa during hewholeperiodofPortuguese ulesee Ftima da Silva Gracias, Health and Hygiene n Colonial Goa: 1510-1961 (New Delhi:Concept, 1994).PP-157-72. , _ _ . . , _ ,Jean-Baptiste avernier, ravels in India of Jean-aptiste avermer,trans,by v. Kau anaW. Crooke,2ndedn,2 vols (NewDelhi:MunshiramManoharlal,1977)h240.



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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA IO3Turning owspecificallyowesternndia,twoearly ists fdrugs ndplants an be notedbriefly,orthey re purely otanical.First s a listdating rom 5 6 oftwenty-sevenrugs, nd where hey rew, ompiledbythe mportantarly bserverf coastal ndia,TomPires. econd s ashorterist of drugsbySimoAlvaresfrom he mid-sixteenthentury.Neitherncludes nythingn theuses of these lants n medical ractice.9There is also a later 1738) list of nearlyfiftyndianplantsused formedicinal nd foodpurposeswrittenya well-informedesuit.10urtwomain ources orHindumedical ractice re worksbyGarciad'Orta andChristavo a Costa.These booksconsist f ists fsimplesnddrugs ndmedicinal lantsfoundnwesternndia,butthey oth also includedatamuchmorerelevant o ourconcerns,or hey escribe owthesemateriamedicawereused ntreatment,othbythemselves,hat sthePortuguese,and alsobyyunanindayurvedicractitioners.Some background n d'Orta and Costa will helpus to evaluate theusefulness f their information. he New ChristianGarcia d'Orta(1501-68) s generallyonsidered o be thegreatestcholar f sixteenth-century ortuguese oa. D'Orta was thefirstmajornaturalistostudyhemain medicinal lants nd other herapeuticubstances sed in coastal

Asia,and was also a doctor nd historian fmedicine, pharmacistnd awide-rangingavant nterestednhistorynd anthropology.is famouswork,Coloquiosdossimples, drogashe cousasmedicinaise India,wasone of the first ooks, and one of theveryfew secularbooks,to bepublishednGoa inthe ixteenthnd seventeenthenturies. he rare onlytwenty-fouropies reknown) irstdition s dated1563. 1It is divided ntofifty-sevenhapters, ach of them n the form f adialogue rcolloquy.This iteraryonceitmeans hat heusualpatternsthat in each colloquyd'Orta's interlocutor,r Ruano, asked him a9Tom Pires,The Suma Orientalof Tom Pires and the Book ofFranciscoRodrigues, rans,and ed. by Armando Corteso (London: Hakluyt Society,1944), pp. 512-18; JaimeWalter,'Simo Alvares o seu rol das drogasda India',Studia io (1962),117-49.This list has beenthoroughly nalysed byDr ArionRosu, 'Les missionnaires ans l'histoiredes scienceset des techniques ndiennes I). Un indit suitesur la phytothrapiendienne uXVIIIe sicle*,Journalof the European Ayurvedic ociety,3 (1993), 174-228. My thankstoProfessorRahul PeterDas for endingme a copyof thisarticle, nd to Dr Rosu forprovidinguseful omments n an earlier ersion fthepresent tudy.For d'Orta (and notHorta, da Orta, or Orta) see Garcia d'Orta, Coloquios dos simplesedrogase cousas medicinaisda India: reproduofacsimiladada edio impressa mGoa em 10de abrilde 1563,comemorando quartocentenario a edio original, bra dada a estampa pelaAcademiadas Ciencias de Lisboa (Lisbon Academiadas Ciencias de Lisboa, 1963);Garcia daOrta,Coloquios dos simples, drogashe cousas medicinaisde India,ed. byConde de Ficalho,2vols (Lisbon: ImprensaNacional, 1891-95); Colloquies on theSimplesand Drugs of India byGarcia da Orta,trans, yClementsMarkham London,Sotheran, 913). Especially mportantsC. R. Boxer,Two Pioneers fTropicalMedicine: Garciad'Orta and Nicolas Monarde (London:Hispanic&c Luso-BrazilianCouncils, 1963).See also Daya de Suva's excellentThe PortuguesenAsia: Anannotatedbibliography fstudieson Portuguese olonialhistorynAsia, 1498-C.1800(Zug: IDC, 1987hentry o. 2336,pp. 252-53.



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IO4 M. N. PEARSONquestion, uch as 'Do Hindu doctorsuse Portuguesemethods?'. 'Ortathen rovidedhe nswer.Other haracterslsoappearfrom ime otime,suchas a servant irl nd a Hindu doctorwho is introduced or he olepurpose f inginghepraises fd'Orta.Eachcolloquy ealtwith nedrugor simple. n each case he described hedrug, aid where t grew, ndcommentedn itstherapeuticse.Most of themwerevegetable, uthealso dealtwith vory nd diamonds. t is an excellent omprehensiveempiricaltudy f ndianmateriamedica ndbotanyngeneral, ot ustmedicine, lthoughhe was a famousdoctor n sixteenth-centuryoa,servings thephysician f theRoyalHospitalat the timeofStFrancisXavier's tay nGoa inthe arly 540s, ndministeringo thePortugueseelite fthe own.Even in termsof European practiceof the time,d'Orta's medicalknowledgewas not advanced.This can be seen in his descriptionfcholera.Goa was hitbya major holera pidemicn1543;all classes ndages were struckby it thatwinter, hatis the monsoonperiod.ThePortuguese octors ould do nothing,nd of everyhundredwho wereaffected,nlyten survived. welve, fifteen,ven twenty ictimswereburied achday.Thegovernor, artimAfonso eSousa,evenordered nautopsyna fruitlessttempto find hecauseof the affliction.12'Ortawas the firsturopean o describe holera n India; in theColoquios hementionsheHindu nd Arabicnames ort, ndcompareswhathesawinGoa with what he knewof Europe.He considered herewas a toxichumourwhichhad tobeexpelled. twas causedbyovereating,rbytoomuch exualintercourse.e notedthatthe ocal vaidyasusedricewithpepperand cardamom, auterized he feetof thepatient, iedup thepatient'simbs ndapplied ongpeppers othe yes.13 s tofevers,'Ortafollowed uropeanpracticend treated evers ithbleedingndpurging,and rich foods. Of opiumhe notedthat its long termuse producedimpotence,espite tspopularuse as an aphrodisiac. ut he also claimedthattheuse of opiumcouldhelpconception. his was becauseits usedelayed jaculationbythemaleby slowingdownhis imagination'. swomen re slowern the ctof Venus' hismeantthey oth ompleteheact at one time. . . .] The opiumalso opensthechannels ywhich hegenital eedcomesfrom hebrain, yreasonof tscoldness, o that heycompletehe ctsimultaneously.'14Clearlywemustnot maketoomuch f d'Orta'smedical xpertise. eseems o havebeenthoroughlyroundednEuropeanpractice fthefirst12For a dramatic escriptioneeGasparCorrea,Lendasda India,4 vols (Lisbon:Academiarealdas sciencias,1858-66), iv,288-89." Seed Urta,Coloquios, no. 17tor descriptionr nordexim in1543 referencesocoloquiosin thetext reto thetranslation yMarkham).Coloquios, o.41.



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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA IO5half fthe ixteenthentury.he main nfluencesnhismedical hinkingwerethethoroughlyredictablenes:Galen, Aristotle, ippocrates ndIbn Sina. The basiswaswhatmaybe calledhumoural athology. is bookgoesintovery laboratedetailto workout whether arious imples nddrugswerewarm r cold orhot,moist rdry rwet.Concerningheplant'anarcardo' 'semecarpusnarcardium') e was asked, In whatdegree oyouplace t warm nddry?' owhichherespondedhat omeplace t n the ourth,arm nddry; thersnthe econd art f he hird;utneitheroftheseatisfy e, orwhen reent sclearly ot owarm nddry.t thereforeoesnot ppear easonableo maket s warm nddrys some therpices,uch spepper,whichsplacednthe hirdegree.15D'Orta neverwentbeyond he standard uthoritiesf his time.He didcorrectnd criticizehese uthoritiesnoccasion, ncefor xamplewriting'letnot ny ext fany uthor enywhatmy wneyeshaveobserved. . .]Frighten enotwithDioscorides rGalen,for do notsaybutthetruthand what know.'A similarmpirical igours seenwhenhis nterlocutor,DrRuano,quoted o him he pinion f ome talian riars. 'Orta replied:'I do not wantFriars s reprehendersxcept nthepulpit'.16owever,henever uestionedhefundamentalaradigms overningremodernuro-peanmedical ractice.A possiblereasonfor hisconservatism as theconstrainingact hatd'Orta was a NewChristian,nd indeed pparently farfrom onvincedconvert. orn n1501,hestudied t theSpanishuniversitiesfSalamancaand AlcaldeHenares,where ismedical rainingonsisted fmemorizingHippocrates,Galen and Ibn Sina. Subsequently 'Orta taught t Lisbonfrom 526until e eft orndia. t seemsveryikelyhathisdepartureorGoa in 1534,as thepersonalphysician f the latergovernor,MartimAfonso e Sousa,was a result fincreasingntolerancenPortugal. woyears fter e left he nquisitionwas setup in Lisbon,and was in fullswing ouryears ater.As a New Christian ewas forced ostep arefullyas thisnewageof ntoleranceegan nPortugal.As a result,hemassivecompilationhat was theColoquios was generallygnoredn Portugal,thought was widelyused notherpartsofEurope n the ate-sixteenthcenturynd subsequently,hanks to a Latin translationwhich went15Coloquios, no. 5; compareno. 12 for a similar earned and somewhat circular to moderneyes)discussion.

Coloquios, nos. 9 and 30. SeeespeciallyBoxer,Two Pioneers, p. 7-13; GeorgSchurhammer,FrancisXavier:His Life,His Times,3 vols (Rome:JesuitHistorical nstitute, 977),11, 03; andM. B. Barbosa and J. Caria Mendes, 'Garcia d'Orta, pioneerof tropicalmedicine and hisdescriptions f cholera in his Coloquios (1563)*, n Proceedings of the XXIII InternationalCongress of the Historyof Medicine,2 vols (London: Wellcome Institute f the HistoryofMedicine,1974),H12.58-59.



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IO6 M. N. PEARSONthrough ive ditions,he first ne beingpublishedn 1567 nAntwerp.17D'Orta himself ufferedosthumouslyrom his ntolerance. e died in1568,but n1580he was condemned s a Jewbythe nquisition,nd hisremainsweredugupand burnt t an auto def,A sister adactually eenburnt y he nquisitionnGoa intheyear fter isdeath.Forus d'Orta'smainvalue s his ccounts f ndigenousmedical ractice.He knewofyunanimedicine rom ts ocal practitioners,rhakims, ndhad a cordialrelationship iththesepeople at thecourtof the NizamShahs nAhmadnagar.'Orta infact laims hathiscureswere ftenmoreefficacioushan thoseofthe Muslims.The general oint s thathe wasmuchmore ttuned oyunanimethodshan oayurvedic,nd this or heobviousreason hatmany f the uthoritiesequotes, uch s Galen, bnSina and al-Rhazi, re also prime extsforyunanimedicine;ndeed bnSing nd al-Rhaziwereof courseMuslimhealers. herewas then largedegree fcommonalityetween isEuropeanknowledgend thatof theyunani ractitioners.e had muchmore o learnfromHindu healers ortheir ystem, hilenottotally iscrete rom isown,was moredifferentthan theyunanione. He usuallyappreciated he abilities f the localvaidyaswithwhom he had contact, onsideringheircures as oftensuperior o thosehe knew.However,he had no inkling f the vastandancient ody f yurvedicheory. reatnames uch s Susruta ndCarakawereunknown o him.All he knew of Hindumedicinewas the actualpractice fpossibly otverywell informed ealers n Goa. He knewnoSanskrit;ndeed assettiseebelow),wasthe nly uropeannthe ixteenthcenturyo attempt o learnthis anguage.He claimedthatthe Hindudoctorsaremenwho cure ccordingoexperiencendcustom' ut nfactthismerely hows thathe was unawareof the very greatayurvedicscholarlyraditionwhichwas passedon throughhegenerationsyitsfollowers.18

D'Orta had a quiteobjective ttitude o othermedical ystems.n ageneral assagewhichdescribes articularly ellhis attitude o diversemedicalknowledge, e notedhowhispatient,heKingofAhmadnagar,'taughtmethenames f llnesses ndmedicinesnArabic, nd taught imthe ame nLatin,which leasedhimverymuch'.TheHindudoctors ftenusedPortuguese ethodsoo,Butmost fthemot orrectly.or heyay heresbleeding,nd hey everledbefore e werentheand; ut heysed upping-glasses,awingnd eeches. .]17On thespreadof d'Orta's book see Donald F. Lach, Asia in theMaking ofEurope, 3 vols(Chicago:UniversityfChicagoPress,1965-93),1,192-95,and in,457,where t s notedthat hefirst utch book on tropicalmedicine,byBontius,publishedposthumouslyn 1642, is closelymodelledon d'Orta. For an excellent ccountof medicalscholarship nPortugal n the ixteenthcentury ee Lgia Bellini, Notes on Medical Scholarship nd theBroad IntellectualMilieu inSixteenth-centuryortugal', ortuguese tudies,15 (1999), 11-41.18Coloquios, no. 36.On Sassetti eeLach, 1, 77,and 11, ook 3, 541.



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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA IO7they ere everccustomedo ook t watersi.e. ourinalysis].can ellyou hattheyure ysenteryery ell,an ell ouwhetherheresfeverrnot romhe ulse,andwhethert s weak r trong,ndwhat s the umourhatffends,hethert sblood rheat rphlegm,rmelancholy;nd heyive good emedyorbstruction.Sometimeshey lassifyhingsncorrectly,esays, uch s gettingheheator drynessfparticular rugswrong. t mustbe remembered erethatHindu medicine lso depended n the notion fhumours, lbeit lightlydifferentnes from hoseoftheEuropean nd Muslimtraditions, hichareremarkablyimilar.19 e considered hat heir nowledge fanatomywas veryweak. However,d'Orta himself ookmany hings rombothayurvedicndyunani ealers.ngeneral ewouldtry uropeanmethodsfirst,utifthese failedhe would thenuse 'brahmin' nes.20 ndeed hemodestlylaimed hathe was thebest nformed ealer nGoa, for n theColoquioshehas a Hindudoctor ay Dr Orta knowsbetter han ll ofus;forweonlyknow heGentios se.Hindu],butheknowsChristians, oors[sc. Muslim], nd Gentios etter hanus all.'21We knowmuch essaboutour other uthority,hristavo a Costa. HearrivednGoa intheyearofd'Orta'sdeath, nd in 1569was a doctor nthe Royal Hospital in Cochin.22Modern librariesoften ist him as'CristobalAcosta,ca. 1515-ca. 1592'. His book in Englishwas calledTreatisesnDrugsandMedicines fEast India (1578). n somewayshiswork s more useful o us than s d'Orta's. Costa has moreon Hindumedicine,hough ess on Muslim,whered'Orta profitedromhis longassociationwith hecourt ftheNizamShahs.Costa,on theotherhand,notes na typical assagethathe askeda brahminoctornCochin boutsome ocalcures.This brahmin as a friend fCosta's,andvery opularamongboth he ocalinhabitantsfCochin nd also themany ortuguesewho ived here.23e saysmore bout thehealing ropertiesfthedrugshedescribes, hiled'Orta s morebotanical.He also,unlike 'Orta mostof thetime,differentiatesetweendifferentindu systemsn differentareas. Thus brahmin, anarin and Malabar treatmentsre specified.24However,Costa's generalbackgroundwas similar o d'Orta's. He also19Coloquios, no. 36;Figueiredo,Ayurvedic edicine',p. 231.Coloquios, no. 36. See myfuller tudy f acculturationnd mixing:FirstContacts betweenIndian and European Medical Systems:Goa in theSixteenthCentury', n WarmClimates andWesternMedicine: theEmergence f TropicalMedicine,1 00-1900, ed. byDavid Arnold,TheWellcome Institute eries in the Historyof Medicine (Amsterdam:EditionsRodopi, 1996),pp. 20-41. On d'Orta ministeringo the ruler fAhmadnagar ee Coloquios, nos 11and24. It isnotreallymybrief opronounce n the objective'truth fd'Orta's work,but should note herethatwhilebleeding, hegreat tapleofEuropean practice,was indeed notdone intheayurvedictradition,here sevidence f Hindudoctorsusineurinalvsis ordiagnosticDurooses.21Coloquios, no. 54.Tratadodas drogase medicinasdas India Orientais,por Christovoda Costa, ed. by JaimeWalter Lisbon:Junta e Investigaes o Ultramar, 964), p. 125 (hereafterCosta').23Costa, p. 28.24Costa,pp. 23 and 28.



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IO8 M. N. PEARSONrelied ssentiallyn humoural athology,nd the classicalauthorities.Thuscanafistula'cassiafistula') ethought as between ot and coldasregardstemperaturen the first egree n termsof humidity,whiletamarinds ere old anddryn the econddegree.25Earlier cholarsdismissedhis workby claiming hat all he did wassummarize 'Orta,thoughhis book did includenumerous llustrations.However, onald Lachhas shown hatwhilehe knew f and usedd'Orta,thetwo booksdo differ idely. orexample,Costa describes orty-sevenplants, ndof thesefourteenre notmentionedyd'Orta,whilenineofd'Orta'sare not nCosta.26His modern ditor, aimeWalter, rovidesgooddiscussion f thismatter. s noted bove,he does includematerialbasedon his ownexperience, hich iffersrom 'Orta,andsupplementshim notherways,yetmuchof his work s indeedmerely copy,withadditions rdeletions, f d'Orta. Forexample, he discussion n opiumquotedabove is reproducedyCosta, butthe notion fopiumdelayingejaculationndso fosteringonceptions eft ut.27 ot thatCostatries ohide his sources. n his discussion n 'turbito' 'ipomoea turpethium')especificallyaysthathe has not seenthisplant, o heisrelyingnd'Orta,whohad.28Of all the authorshe quotes,d'Orta leads withninety-sevencitations,ollowed y bn Sina withfifty-five,ioscorideswith orty-five,Serapiowith orty-one,nd Galenwith hirty-eight.When we turn o their pecificnformationboutHindupractice,wefindmost sefulmaterialnfevers,ysenteryndespeciallyholera. hereis,however,much ther urious ndobscurenformation,hich snotedbriefly. ne generalmatter hat Costa pointedout was thatHindus,brahmins, anias, ll ofthem, ever tartedhedaywithout athing hewholebody.Muslimsdid this t leastevery hree ays,whileEuropeansnotoriously ouldhave beenmuchmoreparsimoniousntheirblutions.In1569 heKing fCochinwasill,buthe toldCostathat ven f tcosthimhis ifehe stillhad totakehisbath verymorning.29The twoauthors enerallyind omedifferencesnd somesimilaritiesbetween uropean ndHindupractice. hus for fevers'a very eneralcategoryndeed,which ould ncludemalaria, yphoid,nd even tseemscholera), 'Orta likedto feedpeopleup,andcombine hiswithbleedingandpurging,ut ndians tarvedheir atients or en r evenfifteenays,and thenfedthemmango uice,and laterwholemangoes.On theotherhand,Gujaratihealersdidnotcure nanyotherwaythan ogivenothing25Costa,pp. 44,86,127.On tamarinds ee also Rosu,p. 203,n. in.26See Lach. 11. ook i, 4*6-17.27Costa,p. 279.Costa,p. 199.Costa,pp. 125-26.



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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA IO9to eat'.30However,Albuquerque arly n thecentury escribed uiteadifferentreatmentn Malabar.Those who had a feverweregivenmeat oeat,andfish,henwerepurged,nd thengiven iquids.31ires,writingtalmost he ame time s Albuquerque,aid ifthey ave feverhey at fishandkeepwashing hemselves.[..] Ourpeoplewhen heyhavefevers atfat hickensnd drinkwine ndare cured.'32Costanoted heuse ofnutmeg ybothPortuguesend ndians.He saidthatboth Indian'and brahmin' octors sed t for ll cold llnessesf thebrain ndparalysis,nd other ervous roblems,ndalso for nfirmitiesfthewomb 'enfermidadesa madre').33 ere wemaybe approachingolkmedicine s comparedwithayurvedic^ hough o say this assumesthesuperiorityf the atter,nd relegatesheformer o the now abandonedmargins f medicalpractice. f however uch a differentiationas anyvalue,then he famousbezoar stonemustbelong o folkmedicine. hisstone,widely escribednthepopular oreofmany ultures, as thoughtto be theresult f ncrustationsuilding p around foreignody n thestomachof ruminant nimals.Wild goats fromPersia wereespeciallyfecundnproducinghese nvaluable tones.Theywerebelieved o be anexcellentntidote opoison, purgative,means fpreservingne'syouthandvirility,nd also a curefor heplague,bladder omplaints,ndso on.TheJesuitsealouslyguarded herecipefor heir ordial tone, bezoarstonewith namazingist fother dded ngredients.t was usedforheartproblems,nd was a goodexampleofthe blendof ndian ndEuropeanpractice. aken back toPortugal,hese ezoar toneswerewidely sedbythe lite or heirmedicinal ndamulet ualities.34Aloesprovide nother xample.Hindu healersused it as a purgative,andalso forkidney iseases, olics, ndforhealingwounds.Whenmixedwithmyrrhtwas called mocebar', nd was usedto curehorses nd to killmaggotsn humanwounds.35 o cure wounds n general ne Malabarmethodwas to wash the wound nwarmcoconutoil for n hour or sotwice a day.36Tabashir,or the bark milkfromwithin he stemsofbamboos,was usedbyHindus o deal with ver-heating,ither xternalrinternal,nd also for eversnddysentery.37urpethin,hegummyart f30Coloauios. no. '6.31Afonso de Albuquerque, quoted in Figueiredo,Goa Pr-Portuguesa', tudia, 13/14 1965),161-62.Tom Pires,p. 69.Lx>sta,p. 23.Coloquios, no. 45; Costa, p. 103;AnnMaria Amaro, Goa's Famous Cordial Stone',ReviewofCulture, /8 1988-89), 82-103. My thanks o FrCharlesBorgesfor his reference. or theiruse inEuropeseeLach, 11, ook 1,12.Coloquios, no. 2; and see Coloquios for a detailed account of Muslim purgingpractice,followingbnSina's advice,also described nCosta, p. 125.nres,p. 69; Atonso de Albuquerque, uotedinfigueiredo,Uoa l're-1'ortuguesap. 162.Coloquios, o.51.



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IIO M. N. PEARSONa creeping lant,was used to reduce nflammation,nd as one of theingredientsoproduce purgative.38nother seful lantwas anarcardo,'('semecarpusnarcardium').he uiceofthisdry' ruit aswidely sed nall of Malabarinplaceof caustic. t was applied o external lcers ndtorotteneeth,nd wasalso usedas a fixative hendyeingloth.39Accordingo Figueiredo, ysenteryas thegreatkillernGoa for tleast wo centuries.40ehavenoted everal ostrumsoproduce urging,and t seems hat hesewere outinelysedwhendysenteryasdiagnosed.Apparentlyot ll healers id thepurgingirst,utregardlessf this herewere hen everalmethodso curepatientsndbuild hem p.Someusedtype fdog-bane, thers more omplicatedmixture. eitherndiansnorPortugueserescribednywine. Ratherkanji,ricebroth,was provided,with hicken ieces oaked n t.41 osta said alldoctors, rahmin,anarinand Malabari,used the skin or huskofnutmegmixedwithbuttermilk('leite zedo'),for ll kinds fdysentery.his wasgiven wice day, nthemorningndatnight,nd then hepatientwasgivenboiledricewithoutsalt or butterthat s,kanji) againmixedwith hicken.fthe attackwassevereopiumwas also administered,houghthiswas done morebyMuslims hanbyHindus.42

D'Orta,however,ifferentiatesetween ariousHindupracticesn this.The Portuguesemethodwas differentromMalabari, nd it differedromthe Malayalam. (I am not sure what this distinctions based on asMalayalam s of course he anguage f theMalabar,nowKerala,region.)The Malabar treatmentasmuchmore igoroushan hePortuguesene,while heMalayalismixed piumwith henutmeg. n thismatter 'Ortathoughthat he nativemethods ad much o commend hem omparedwithPortuguesereatments.43ereagainhowever here eem o bemajordifferencesn oursources, or woearly-sixteenth-centuryccountsbothsaythat nMalabardysenteryastreatedwith resh oung oconutmilk,which oints o a muchmilder reatment.44The greatkillern Goa andwesternndia n the ixteenthentury ascholera. arlymodern ccounts re unitedntheir resentationf a fearedandusually atal isease. offerust woexamples: rGodinho aid twas'so fatal hat he ndcomes n a matterfhours',whileLinschotenotedthatthe icknessesvery ommon,ndkillethmany man,whereofhey38Coloquios, no. 54.

Costa, p. 143.40Figueiredo,Goa Pr-Portueuesa'p. 176.41Coloquios, no. 27.42Costa, d. 28.43Coloquios, no. 27.44Pires,p. 69; Afonsode Albuquerque, uoted inFigueiredo,Goa Pr-Portuguesa'p. 162.



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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA IIIhardly r never scape'.45Ovington,n educatedman and a clergyman,reflectedEuropean onsensus oncerningause and curewhenhe wrotethat holera 'mordechine')s violentVomitingndLooseness, nd whichis caus'dmostfrequentlyyan Excess ofEatingparticularlyf Fish andFlesh ogether.t has beenCur'dby Red-hotron lapt o theHeal ofhimthat s sick, o closethat t renders imuneasieby tsnearness, herebytleaves Scarbehindt.'46Therewere leven utbreaksfcholera nGoa between 543and1680.The first as theworst;we are toldthat fthose fflicted,nly neintensurvived.47he Italian merchant assettidescribed t in Cochin in the1580s:There s currentere certain iseasewhich ills personn ust 4hours nd whichis calledmordaxi, hich s a revulsionfthe tomach nd of the ntire odywhichrejectstself;ll thehumoursuit hebody nd theblood oo, o that nedies; nd tcomes romatingmuch weet ruit, uch ork,many reserves,nd from rinkingmuchwater;whence hepoor stomachs,whentheyhave suffered uch, hrowthemselvesntheground.t s the ccident hichmakes tknown,hat uddenlyhepatientsosethe ense ftouchntheir xternalarts,o that hey eel othingf heyare trucklows rpierced ith needle.48The VenetianManucci, a self-taughtoctor, aterin the seventeenthcenturyoted hatmort-de-chien,holera,was themainkiller, escribingitas colic of thebowelswith omitingnd axity. he best ure, heusualone at this ime,was to burn heheelofthepatientwith red-hot ron

45Intrepid tinerant:Manuel Godinho and hisJourney rom ndia to Portugal n 1663, trans,and ed. by JohnCorreia-Afonso Bombay: Oxford University ress, 1990), p. 38; J. H. vanLinschoten, he Voyageof JohnHuyghenvanLinschoten o theEast Indies, d. byArthur okeBurnell nd P. A. Tiele. 2 vols (London: Hakluvt Society. 88*. i. ik- x6.JohnOvington,A Voyage o Surat n theYear1689,ed. byH. G. Rawlinson London:OxfordUniversitv ress/Milford.q2q). dd. 204-0*.47Alberto C. Germano da Silva Correia, La Vieille-Goa (Bastor:Tipografia Rangel, 1931),pp. 268-307. Fortheoutbreak f1567see the ontemporary esuit ccount nDocumenta ndica,ed. by J.Wicki et al (Rome: Institution istoricum ocietas Iesu, 1948- ), vu, 384, letter f FrGomesVaz, 12December1567.For theoutbreak f1570seeJooManuel Pacheco de Figueiredo,'Goa dourada nossculos XVI e XVII: O hospitaldos pobresdo padrePaulo Camerte, sboodesua reconstituio istrica', tudia,25 (1968), 136-40.JohnCorreia-Afonso,On theFourthCentenary f Filippo Sassetti 1540-1588): ScientificObservationsfromCochin', Indica, 26 (1989), 15-24 (p. 19). Sassetti was theonly sixteenth-century uropeanto try o learnSanskrit,nd he also talkedwithHindu healers nd gotone ofthemto translateSanskrittexts on pharmaceuticalsfor him. He spentmost of his time inMalabar (1583-88) thoughhe died inGoa. He was a well-educated nd observant nquirer. eeLach, 1, 77,and11, ook 3,541.



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112 M. N. PEARSONuntil heheatwas felt.nthiswaythepainwas allayed nd thedischargeandvomitingtopped.49The cauterizationfthefeet escribedytwoofthese uthorsmaywellhavebeen nIndianmethodwhich hePortuguesedopted, or 'Ortawasthefirsturopean o describe holera, nd henoted he ndian reatmentofapplying hot ronto the feet.50n accountfrom he1750s eems oconfirmheseearlierPortugueseourceswhichsay this was an Indianremedy,houghhe bserver till houghttworked uitewell:There s likewiseknownon theMalabar-coastchiefly, mostviolent isorder hey allthe Mordechin,which seizes the patientwith such fury f purging,vomiting ndtormina sic]of the ntestines,hat twill often arryhim offn thirty ours.For thisthephysicians mong the nativesknow no moreeffectuall emedy, hanthe actualcautery ppliedto the olesof thefeet, hepowerful evulsion fwhichrarely ails f asalutary fficacy.51

One partof thetreatment idely sedbyHindu doctorswas howeverapparentlyotpickedupbythePortuguese. indu doctorswouldthrowpepper ntotheeyesof thepatientn order o gaugethe ntensityf theattack.This is presumably hatCharlesDellon describedn Daman in1673,whenhe noted young ortugueseirlwasgravelyll,but the ndianphysician,nstead f etting erblood,hadcoveredherheadwithpepper,which immediatelyausedtobe removed'.52assume hat hepointwasthatfpatients idnotreact othepepper heyweregiven pfor ead.Thesetwotreatmentsere ombinedwith arious thermeasures. irstthepatientwas purged f thecontentsfhis stomach.We havealreadydescribed ariousmethods fdoingthis.Costa said that n thecase ofcholera ndiandoctors hought hata mixture f tamarind nd youngcoconut il provided goodbutmildpurge.nGoa localdoctors sedaparticular ariety f 'mirobolanos' 'terminaliahebula') to purgeforcholera.Wemaynote,ncidentally,hatmany fthese urginggentswereknownto thePortuguese lready, romGalen and especially rombnSina.53 osta said that ndiansusedcanafistula'cassia fistula') o purgethe holera ndthehumourswhichwere ffectinghe tomach. o clarify49Niccolao Manucci,Storia do Mogor,orMogul India,trans,with ntro. nd notesbyWilliamIrvine, ndedn,4 vols (Calcutta:Editions ndian,1965-67), 11, 57.The wordusedfor holera nGoa was mordexim r variants hereof. algado tellsus that heword s local,deriving rom heKonkanimodxiormorxi.The French ater onvertedt totheir erm, s above,of mort-de-chien.See Sebastio Rodolfo Dalgado, Glossrio Luso-Asitico, 2 vols (Coimbra: Imprensa daUniversidade, 919-21), 11, 9-71, under mordexim'.According o Rawlinsontheword camefrom heMarathimodashithrough hePortuguesemordexim. ee Ovington, . 204,n. 1.50Coloquios, no. 17.51JohnHenryGrose,A Voyage othe East Indies . . towhich s added AJourney romAleppotoBusserah, vertheDesert,byMr. Charmichael, ndedn,2 vols (London: 1772),1, 50.52A. K. Priolkar, he Goa Inquisition Bombay:Pnolkar,1961),p. 14otDr Dlions account.53Costa,pp. 35, 43, 177.Formyrobolan eeRosu, p. 191,n.64.



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HINDU MEDICAL PRACTICE IN i6TH WESTERN INDIA II3theblood a little hubarbwas used, ndthey ften lso gavesomegrainsofcinnamonnorder o cureflatulence.54Following n from hepurge,fthepatientsurvived,hey henhad tobe builtup again.The Hindusgavekanji, n thiscase a mixturefricewaterwithpepperand cumin eed,that s cardamom, dded. Canarinpepperwas considered obe thebestvarietyouse;Costa noted hatbothbrahminnd Canarin octors referredtto other ypes.55'Orta said thatthe Hindusalso boundup most of thebodyof thesufferero preventcramps, nd administeredetel.He added that all these hings re notwantingnreason, houghheyre doneroughly'. hePortuguese ethodagain typically llowed morefood. Indiansgave onlykanji, but thePortuguesereferredo firsturge hepatientnorder o clear he tomach,and then noint t withoil in order o comfortt. After hischicken rpartridgeouldbe eaten.56All thismaywell pointto the difficultiesf usingthesePortuguesesources s much s to their alue. t strue hat hey ometimes,t least nthe present tate of my knowledge, ppear to be contradictoryndconfused.t svery ifficulto dentify any f theparticular lantswhichtheymention. he diseasesthemselvesre notalwayseasyto name,for'fever', orexample, ould refer o a rangeof quitedifferent aladies.Nevertheless,hey re all we have,and I hope this brief ccount willencouragemuchmore esearchn this rea, o thatwe canbegin odescribeHindumedical ractice,s opposed otheory,nthis arlymodern eriod.University fNewSouthWales

54Costa,p. 86.Coloquios, nos 17and46; Costa,p. 16. On cummin eeRosu,p. 202,n. no.Coloquios, o.17.

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