PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT INDIA. 233 
Rajah Tura, say they, who is placed in the first ages of the 
Kali yug, had a son who apostatised from the Hindoo faith, for 
which he was banished by his father to the West. This 
apostate fixed his residence in a country called Mohgod, aud 
propagated the Jewish religion.* The inference, accord- 
ingly, is that other social rites and observances, besides such 
as were purely “religious” in their nature, were similarly 
transmitted. In the sacred records of the Hindoos, a 
system of medicine is shown to have existed among that 
people from an antiquity far beyond the period to which 
history is supposed to extend. Jnasmuch, however, as human 
nature exhibits a general resemblance among all nations, 
the absence of absolute identity among peoples being ac- 
counted for by the influence of climate, habits, customs, and 
political state, so from similar necessities, speculations and 
practices directed towards the well-being of individuals 
and communities may be considered to have gradually 
sprung up and developed among them; also that in the 
earlier ages to which our remarks refer, nationalities and 
civilisations presented many closer affinities among themselves 
than exist in modern days. Hence it has doubtless come 
about that a remarkable similarity is traceable as having 
existed between the sanitary and medical codes of Moses, 
and of Manu. 
The particular rules of Manu’s code which more especially 
relate to personal hygiene and public sanitation are inti- 
mately associated with religious observances. Those rules 
apply to the individual from the moment of his birth.t 
Notice occurs of the ceremonies to be observed at the 
baptism of the infant on the tenth or twefth day after birth, 
of the tonsure, investiture with the Brahminical sacred cord, 
betrothal, marriage, and wedded life. Much importance is 
attached to the performance of funeral rites. Stringent rules 
are inculcated in reference to domestic morals and economics, 
including employments, amusements, ablutions, giving and 
receiving alms, &e. Diet and purification are placed under 
restriction, as is also indulgences and dissipation in their 
several phases. 
The village system of communities is detailed much as it 
exists at the present day, each as a little community 
managing and conducting its own affairs, with its staff of 
* Dow’s History of Hindostan, vol. i, p 7. It would be interesting to 
identify the country alluded to in the text. 
+ They relate also to the period of gestation. 
