On Wind and its Vagaries : Biomorality and Gendered Taxonomies of Disease in Sanskrit Medical Literature

Séminaire organisé dans le cadre du programme "Médecines et religions en Asie du Sud" (IEA-Paris, CEIAS-EHESS): "On Wind and its Vagaries : Biomorality and Gendered Taxonomies of Disease in Sanskrit Medical Literature"

In the trihumoral system of classical Ayurveda, vata, or Wind, is held accountable for the greatest number of afflictions, and, if sufficiently aggravated in the body, is by far the most difficult to correct. Yet it is Wind that holds the anatomical body together and is responsible for its shape. In the eleventh chapter of the Sutra-sthana of the Caraka-samhita, Wind is described as propelling great and small movements of the limbs, as the restrainer and guide of the mind, the coordinator of all the senses and conveyor of the senses to each and every sense object…the propeller of speech, the source or touch and sound, the root of the faculties of hearing and touching ; the origin of pleasure and fortitude (sutra 8). Because of Winds intimate relations with the senses, the diseases caused by it gulma (tumors), prameha (urinary disorders), and sosa (consumption), especially are etiologically connected with sexuality and general debauchery.

Chercheur invité : Martha Ann SELBY, IEA-Paris, professeur associé, Littérature classique sanscrite et tamoule - University of Texas, Austin, (Etats-Unis).

Thème de recherche :

"Medical literature in sanskrit, poetry and poetics in sanscrit and tamil"