Chapter Summary

Numerous descriptions of diseases and treatments are found in the extant Vinayas, especially in the Chapters on Medicine. Different kinds of sickness are mentioned. These have been organised and discussed in categories in accordance with the medical specialties they belong to. The categorised diseases are autumnal illness, wind diseases, humoral diseases, fever, digestive tract problems, headache, and jaundice in the specialty of internal medicine; snakebites and poisoning in toxicology; ocular problems in ophthalmology; itching lesions, carbuncles, wounds, and other skin diseases in dermatology; perineal diseases and foot ailments in surgery; as well as mental problem or non-human-causing illness in psychiatry.

All these diseases with their treatments (as well as tools in some cases), like medicinal substances discussed in Chapter Four, have been examined via the three-fold interpretative method: medical facts are collected and narrated, then explained by means of commentarial information and Āyurvedic lore, and finally discussed in terms of modern medical knowledge. Through this mode of interpretation, medical data in the Chapters on Medicine have been illuminated. Readers may now be able to better understand the medical information recorded in the Chapters on Medicine/Vinayas, and appreciate ancient Indian medicine which has been preserved in these Buddhist sources. Moreover, readers may wish to explore further such diseases and remedies in Āyurvedic or modern medical texts if they are intrigued.