Åyurveda demonstrates that the medical use of the concept of adap-
tation has been operative from ancient times. Zimmermann translates
from Caraka-samhitÓ ̄a 1:6.50:
Experts in appropriateness try to oppose a regimen of diet and exercise
(literally a satmya ̄ ) with contrary qualities to those of the places and dis-
eases in question.^33S ̄atmya(sa, ‘with’; ̄atma, ‘self’) is translated by Zimmermann as “habit-
uation,” and by Sharma and Dash as “homologation” [CS 3:8.118].
‘Homologation’ connotes ‘making similar’ [Gk. homo-logos, ‘agreeing’].
P. V. Sharma translates oka-s ̄atmya as “suitability by practice” [CS
3:8.118], and translates its definition as “adjustment to a particular diet
or behavior due to practice” [CS 1:6:50]. Zimmermann clarifies: satmya ̄
concerns “what has become beneficial to a person through constant use.”
While biogeographical habituation or samtya ̄ is recommended in a short-
term view of the influence of climate, Zimmermann says that “in the long
term, however, the practitioner seeks to obtain an immunity through ha-
bituation.”^34 This second sense of satmya ̄ “denotes an intervention made
on the patient’s body; it has the different meaning of a regimen or remedy
which ‘compensates’ for some excess or lack: a person wasting away is
fed on sweet food for example.” Based on the Åyurvedic notion of body
and land as the two kinds of place (de ́sa), Zimmermann uncovers two di-
mensions of health-promoting adaptation: compensationusing contrar-
ies in therapeutic de ́sas ̄atmya(applying particular remedies), and habitu-
ationto external conditions in biogeographical de ́sasatmya ̄ (concerning
the dietary practices of peoples in different environments).^35 Zimmer-
mann communicates the ethos of Åyurveda in this remark about the
adaptation procedure called satmya ̄ : “The ideal is to accustom oneself to
hit on the right choice of regimen, learned doses, and mixture, so that the
nature of what is eaten is rendered appropriate to the nature of the one
who eats it.”^36
Non-susceptibility
Biologically, non-susceptibility means resistance or immunity to poten-
tially infectious agents or damaging forces. The Åyurveda D ̄ıpik ̄a gives a
succinct definition of resistance:
Resistance to diseases or immunity from diseases includes both attenu-
ation of the manifested diseases as well as prevention of the unmani-
fested ones.
AD 1:28.756 religious therapeutics