SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA 79 better about the ethical norms of this class. Suffice it to note that a very early ritualistic text, namely the Aitareya Brahmana^ suggests that a priest may ruin the sacrificer by effecting a change in the manner of the performance of a ceremony and by not uttering the mantras meant to be uttered. With such threats held out by the priestly class, it is easy to surmise that it almost enjoyed inquisitorial powers. The unfortunate physicians of ancient India attracted the attention of these lawmakers at a time when they were developing the science of medicine. But let us return to our original question as to why the physicians were specially chosen for derision and contempt by the lawgivers. Medicine and Materialist Philosophy A genuine and honest physician is bound to be catholic and thus in practice an opponent of caste-divided society. For him, the man with disease is the subject for treatment; obviously, he cuts across caste barriers, much to the annoyance of the lawgivers who are champions of the social pyramid with themselves at the top. As if this were not enough, the creed of the physicians calls into question the belief in the law of karma also. For justifying the hierarchical society, the priestly class has always employed this law as its weapon. The science of medicine scoffs at such fantastic follies and substitutes in its place, a theory based on the knowledge of the objective laws of nature. This very clearly has a precarious nearness to the doctrine of materialist philosophy. Hence, not to take up cudgels against the physicians under the circumstances would be simply suicidal. The persecution of physicians and other scientists in ancient India, therefore, is not something strange; it is a necessity for the leisured classes belonging to the top echelons of society. The scientists were, however, not prepared to giye in. Their faith in science taught them a few devious methods to hoodwink the orthodox priestly class and thereby preserve their scientific tradition. This they did by paying ransom to the priestly class in the form of rank concessions. With tongue in cheek, the scientists eagerly professed certain doctrines which might be expected to placate the dogmatic law givers. It is like Descartes making a pilgrimage of gratitude to the shrine of the Virgin of Loreto for his scientific discovery (p 363); but certainly it distorts the scientific treatises. Not only the extant texts of Ayurveda, but even such works like Brahmagupta's treatise on astronomy, are tainted and marred by these extraneous demands made on the authors, This aspect has never before been analysed objectively in the course of the study of the texts and it is thanks to Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya that the rigours faced by ancient Indian scientists can now be better understood by us. It may not be out of place hereto make a brief survey of the methods, doctrines, and practice of medical science in ancient India*