Kankayan (Skt. काङ्कायन ‘descendant of Kāṅka’) is the name of a physician. Indian texts on medicine, starting from the Caraka-saṁhitā show that for a long time before these texts, Indian doctors had been in contact with Ērānšahr. Several times and exactly in the chapter which deals with the functions of the wind, the Caraka-saṁhitā brings in, in an assembly of savants assembled round the master Ātreya, a certain Kāṅkāyana Bahlikabhiṣaja "Kankayan the doctor from Bactria". The title of "Bactria" shows clearly his Perso-Aryan origin and even his name signifies that he is "Sogdian", since his name denotes a patronymic signifying "a descendant of Kaṅka" and that Kāng in Chinese (康) is a transcription of the name of the Sogdian people (康居 /kāng-jū/ or K’ang-chü was the territory covering the bassins of the Ču, the Talas, and the middle Syr-Daryā). Therefore, Kankayan was Sogdian by origin who practised medicine in Bactria, and, like Avicenna, was very famous so that in one of the fundamental texts of the Āyurvedā was presented as having been in the circle of the most eminent ancient doctors of India. There are in Indian medical texts preparations ascribed to him ˗for example, the guṭikā (pill) and the modaka (cake), or vaṭaka (fried cake).
