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तक्मन् (takman)

 
Capeller Eng
English
तक्म॑न्
m.
 a kind or whole class of diseases.
Spoken Sanskrit
English
तक्मन् takman
m.
 shrinking
तक्मन् takman
n.
 offspring
Apte
English
तक्मन् [takman],
m.
N.
 of a disease
Av. (various Kāṇḍas).
Monier Williams Cologne
English
1. त॑क्मन्
n.
=
 तोक्°, offspring,
Naigh.
2. तक्म॑न्
m.
 (√ तञ्च्) ‘shrinking’,
N.
 of a disease or of a class of diseases (accompanied by skin-eruptions),
AV.
 i, iv-vi, ix, xi
f.
 , xix.
Monier Williams 1872
English
1. तक्मन्, आ, m., Ved. (especially in the Atharva-
veda), a kind of disease, or probably a whole class of
diseases, accompanied by eruptions of the skin.
—तक्म-नाशन, अस्, ई, अम्, Ved. removing the
disease called Takman.
तक्मन् 2. तक्मन्, अ, n. = तोक्मन् = अपत्य,
offspring, a child
[cf. Gr. τέκνον
cf. also 1. तक्-
मन् under rt. तक्, p. 357, col. 3.]
Macdonell
English
तक्मन् tak-mán,
m.
 fever.
Vedic Reference
English
Takman is a disease repeatedly mentioned in the Athar-
vaveda, but later not known under this name. It is the subject
of five hymns^1 of the Atharvaveda, and is often mentioned else-
where.^2 Weber^3 first identified it with ‘fever, ’ and Grohmann^4
showed that all the symptoms pointed to that ailment.^5 Refer-
ence is made to the alternate hot and shivering fits of the
patient, ^6 to the yellow colour of the jaundice which accompanies
the fever, ^7 and to its peculiar periodicity. The words used to
describe its varieties are anye-dyuḥ, ^8 ubhaya-dyuḥ, ^9 tṛtīyaka, ^10
vi-tṛtīya, ^11 and sadaṃ-di, ^12 the exact sense of most of which
terms is somewhat uncertain. It is agreed^13 that the first
epithet designates the fever known as quotidianus, which recurs
each day at the same hour, though the word is curious (lit.
‘on the other — i.e., next, day’). The ubhaya-dyuḥ (‘on both
days’) variety appears to mean a disease recurring for two suc-
cessive days, the third being free
this corresponds to the rhythmus
quartanus complicatus.^14 But Sāyaṇa considers that it means a
fever recurring on the third day, the ‘tertian.’ The tṛtīyaka,
however, must be the ‘tertian’ fever, ^15 though Zimmer^16 suggests
that it may mean a fever which is fatal at the third paroxysm.
Grohmann^17 regards the vi-tṛtīyaka as equivalent to the tertiana
duplicata, a common form in southern countries, in which the
fever occurs daily, but with a correspondence in point of time
or severity of attack on alternate days. Bloomfield^18 suggests
that it is identical with the ubhaya-dyuḥ variety. The sadaṃ-di^19
type appears to be the kind later known as saṃtata-jvara
(‘continuous fever’), in which there are attacks of several days’
duration, with an interval followed by a fresh period of attack.
Fever occurred at different seasons, in the autumn (śārada), in
the hot weather (graiṣma), in the rains (vārṣika), ^20 but was
especially prevalent in the first, as is indicated by the epithet
viśva-śārada, ‘occurring every autumn.’^21
The disease is said to arise when Agni enters the waters.^22
From this Weber^23 deduced that it was considered to be the
result of a chill supervening on heat, or the influence of heat on
marshy land. Grohmann^24 preferred to see in this connexion
of the origin of the disease with Agni's entering the waters^25
an allusion to the fact that fever arises in the rainy season, the
time when Agni, as lightning, descends to earth with the rain.
Zimmer.^26 who accepts this view, further refers to the prevalence
of fever in the Terai, and interprets vanya, an epithet of fever
found in the Atharvaveda, ^27 as meaning ‘sprung from the
forest, ’ pointing out that fever is mentioned as prevalent among
the Mūjavants and Mahāvṛṣas, two mountain tribes of the
western Himālaya.^28 There is no trace of fever having been
observed to be caused by the bite of the anopheles mosquito,
which breeds in stagnant water: this theory has without reason
been held to be known to classical Indian medicine.^29
Among the symptoms of Takman, or among complications
accompanying it, are mentioned ‘itch’ (Pāman), ‘headache’
(śīrṣa-śoka), ^30 ‘cough’ (Kāsikā), and ‘consumption, ’ or perhaps
some form of itch (Balāsa).
It is perhaps significant that the Takman does not appear
until the Atharvaveda. It is quite possible that the Vedic
Āryans, when first settled in India, did not know the disease,
which would take some generations to become endemic and
recognized as dangerous. What remedies they used against it
is quite uncertain, for the Atharvaveda mentions only spells
and the Kuṣṭha, which can hardly have been an effective
remedy, though still used in later times. Fever must, even in
the Atharvan period, have claimed many victims, or it would
not be mentioned so prominently.
1) i. 25
v. 22
vi. 20
vii. 116
xix. 39 (cf. v. 4).
2) Av. iv. 9, 8
v. 4. 1. 9
30, 16
ix. 8, 6
xi. 2, 22. 26, etc.
3) Indische Studien, 4, 119
Roth, Zur
Litteratur und Geschishte des Weda, 39,
had, from the use of Kuṣṭha as a
remedy, regarded it as denoting
‘leprosy, ’ and was followed by Pictet,
Kuhn's Zeitschrift 5, 337. Muir, Sanskrit
Texts, 4, 280, thought ‘consumption’
was meant.
4) Indische Studien, 9, 381 et seq.
5) See also Bloomfield, Hymns of the
Atharvaveda, 451 et seq.
Zimmer, Altin-
disches Leben, 379-385, and compare the
jvara (a non-Vedic word) of the classical
medicine, Wise, Hindu System of
Medicine, 219 et seq.
Jolly, Medicin,
70-72. Dārila and Keśava, the com-
mentators on the Kauśika Sūtra, every-
where equate takman and jvara.
6) Av. i. 25, 2-4
v. 22, 2. 7. 10
vi. 20, 3
vii. 116, 1.
7) Av. i. 25, 2
v. 22, 2
vi. 20, 3.
8) Av. i. 25, 4
vii. 116, 2.
9) Ibid.
10) Av. i. 25, 4
v. 22, 13
xix. 39,
10.
11) Av. v. 22, 13.
12) Av. v. 22, 13
xix. 39, 10.
13) Grohmann, op. cit., 387
Zimmer,
op. cit., 382
Bloomfield, op. cit.,
274.
14) Grohmann, 388
Zimmer, 382
Bloomfield, 274. It may conceivably
be the form styled Cāturthaka Vipar-
yaya (Wise, op. cit., 232), in which the
paroxysm occurs every fourth day,
and lasts for two days.
15) Sāyaṇa on Av. i. 25, 4
Bloom-
field, 451. It is the jvara tṛtīyaka of
Suśruta (2, 404, 7).
16) Op. cit., 383, quoting Hügel, Kash-
mir, 1, 133.
17) Op. cit., 388.
18) Op. cit., 451.
19) Of doubtful derivation: either
‘always cutting’ (of Sāyaṇa on Av.
xix. 39, 10), or ‘always fastening upon’
(Roth, St. Petersburg Dictionary, s.v.),
or ‘belonging to every day’ = sadaṃ-
dina (Zimmer, 383, n.
Bloomfield,
452).
20) Av. v. 22, 13.
21) Av. ix. 8, 6
xix. 34, 10.
22) Av. 1, 25. 1.
23) Indische Studien, 4, 119.
24) Ibid., 9, 493.
25) Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p.
26) Of. cit., 384.
27) Av. vi. 20, 4.
28) Av. v. 22, 5.
29) Jolly, Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1906, 222.
30) Av. xix. 39, 10.
For the present position of the disease
in India, cf. the Report of the Simla
Conference of 1909.
Capeller
German
तक्म॑न्
m.
 hitzige Krankheit mit Ausschlag.