Ṙtu-s-ātmya: The seasonal cycle and the principle of appropriateness

We address ourselves here to the logical frame of prognosis and treatment, in classical Hindu medicine. The Sanskrit medical texts set forth two different cycles of the seasons. The one which includes the dewy season is of distributive type. Every season has specific qualities antagonistic to the other ones. This provides the physician with a logical scheme according to which he may prescribe medicines compensating for an adverse excess. The other one which includes the first rains is of evolutive type. To the only three seasons effective in India—winter, summer, rains—, each one giving rise to a specific trouble—phlegm, wind, bile—, three other ones are added which represent transitional phases. The medical treatment adapts itself to the course of time, improving the transient seasons—spring, first rains. autumn—which are the only ones fit for the major treatments in nursing-homes. The course of time logically reconstructed will determine the selection, the appropriateness of a medical prescription.