Ancient Indian text decoded baby pain language before modern science

The Kashyapa Samhita, an ancient Indian medical text by sage Vriddha Kashyapa, describes how infants express pain through distinct bodily signs and behaviour, according to a report by India Today. The text's observations mirror principles used in modern neonatal pain assessment, such as the FLACC Scale and the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale.

In the Vedana Adhyaya, or 'Chapter on Knowledge of Pain Signs,' Kashyapa noted that infants with ear pain pull at their ears and refuse to breastfeed. He linked abdominal pain to knees drawn toward the chest and sharp cries, and headaches to eye-squeezing and sensitivity to light.

India Today reports that these observations were organised into a systematic diagnostic framework, treating infant cries as interpretable clues. The account recasts Vriddha Kashyapa as an early paediatric pioneer and one of the intellectual ancestors of modern neonatal diagnosis.