Word origin · etymology
Sanskrit śatabhiṣaj, combining śata, hundred, and bhiṣaj, physician; Śatabhiṣā is an attested variant.
The compact 'hundred physicians' rendering is not the only construction: Monier-Williams gives the sense of requiring that many. The name neither promises healing nor establishes an incurable condition.
Monier-Williams (1899): śatabhiṣaj / śatabhiṣā — University of Hyderabad digital edition ↗
How we know · epistemology
Lexical attestation, ritual tradition and a stated coordinate convention
The old name and deity association document cultural history. The dictionary also repeats historical medical beliefs; recording a word does not validate those beliefs as medicine.
Monier-Williams (1899): śatabhiṣaj / śatabhiṣā — University of Hyderabad digital edition ↗Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa YV 32–35 / RV 25–28, in Indian Astronomy: A Source-book §12.10.1 ↗Rigveda 1.24: Varuṇa — R. T. H. Griffith translation ↗Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā 2.13.20 — Sanskrit transcription ↗
Explore it in your atlas
Connected concepts
Read alongside this entry
Terms used in this explanation
These links connect subjects and terminology. They do not establish a shared historical origin.
Sources & provenance
Use the citations beside each section to distinguish a calculation convention, a historical teaching and an editorial example.