It is common to speak of “civilizational ideas”, but do they exist? For example, are the dośas of Āyurveda peculiarly Indian since they are a tripartite classification that is basic to the Vedic system of knowledge? Plato introduced a similar system based on three humours into Greek medicine, with a central role to the idea of breath (pneuma in Greek). But this centrality of breath (prān. a in ...