Indian Medicine

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The present work aims at an orderly, and at the same time historical treatment of the Ayurvedic system of medicine. It is an English rendering of Julius Jolly's Medizin in German originally published in 190 I, and supplemented by the translator with bibliography and notes covering the literary activity in the field during the next fifty years. It deals with sources, Physicians and Therapy, Theoretical conceptions, Theory of Development and Gynaecology, Internal and External Diseases, Diseases of the Head, Nervous and Mental Diseases and Toxicology.

The book is a model of critical research condensed with the utmost brevity of words without omitting any important detail offact or text bearing on the history of Indian Medicine. A historical approach as has been made in writing this book is a dire necessity for Ayurvedic research work-both literary and practical. The history of Ayurveda indeed claims a better position in the general history of Medicine. The conceptions of the Physicians of ancient India have played a great role in the general culture of India and have entered in many Philosophical doctrines as the basic elements. The Indian Medicine has played in Asia the same role as the Greek Medicine in the West. It has spread in Indo-China, Indonesia, Tibet, Central Asia and Japan exactly as the Greek Medicine have done in Europe and the Arab countries. It was studied by the Greeks, the Arabs, the Portuguese and the Dutch, and in the nineteenth century it secured a place in the scientific literature of Europe. Thus the study of Indian Medicine has taken its place in the classical Science. Through the progress of historical studies it has become possibleto consider with greater precision the correspondence ofIndian Medicine with those of Greek, Iran, Islam and China. Pharmacological value of Ayurvedic drugs has also been fixed. On this background the study ofIndian Medicine presented in this book will be profitable for a deeper understanding of the history of Medicine in general and of Indian Medicine in particular.

Dr Julius Jolly (Wurzberg)-the author of the original German book Medizin was one of the great German Orientalists who continued their literary research during the closing years of the nineteenth and the beginning years of the twentieth century’s. Besides the history of Indian Medicine, he had specialised in Kautilya's Arthasastra and Hindu Law and Custom.

Dr Chintamani Ganesh Kashikar did his DLitt in Sanskrit University of Poona. He was a Vedic scholar. As an author often books and over fifty research papers are to his credit.

The first edition of Indian Medicine was published by me at Poona in 1951. It has been completely sold out and I am glad that a second edition is being published for the benefit of students of Ayurveda and the history of Indian Culture.

Since India became a free nation in 1947; the Science of Ayurveda received recognition all over India. Qualified Ayurvedic Physicians have been and are being registered as medical practitioners. Ayurvedic Colleges have been founded where theoretical and practical training is being imparted to students. A number of medical hospitals have been established where patients are being treated according to the Ayurvedic Science and practical lessons are being given to students. Ayurvedic manuscripts are being published, and books on Ayurvedic Subjects and Ayurvedic text- books have also been published in different languages. Research work in theory and practice of Ayurveda is being conducted to some extent. Thus Ayurvedic studies pave received a new impetus.

Attempts are, however, not restricted to mere revival of Ayurveda. Thought is being given in some quarters to evolve a national Medicine of India. If this dream of Indian Medical. Thinkers has to be realised in days to come, Ayurveda will have to play a prominent role in the efforts therefor. It may be necessary to apply a modern Scientific test to the theory and practice of Ayurveda. A study of Ayurveda in the historical perspective would have to be undertaken for that purpose. Books like the present one form an important source of developing the scientific outlook which would ultimately lead to that goal. The present position of Ayurvedic Science demands that the training to be imparted to students of Ayurveda be historically oriented as far as possible. The present book is expected to serve that purpose in its own way.

I thank Messrs Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., for having undertaken the publication of this second edition of the book.

The works on the general history of Medicine do not give sufficient space to the Indian medicine. The latter is, however, important under two heads: The conceptions of the physicians of ancient India, like those of the astronomers and specialists in different sciences, have played a great role in the general culture of India and have entered in many philosophical doctrines as the basic elements. The theory of the Pranas and the psycho-physiological ideas of the Ayurveda have spread everywhere; the conceptions of logic in the Caraka Samhita are among the most ancient of the Nyayadarsana. Besides, the Indian Medicine has played in Asia the same role as the Greek. Medicine in the west, for it has spread in Indo-China, Indonesia. Tibet. Central Asia and as far as Japan exactly as the Greek Medicine has done in Europe and the Arab countries. It is, therefore, one of the great domains of study for the history of thought in India as well as in the world. The importance of the Indian Medicine had already been realised by the Greeks of Alexander. Several of its texts have been translated into Arabic since the first cultural contacts of the Muslims with India. In the middle of the sixteenth century its most precious drugs have been studied by the Portuguese Garcia-da-orta. In the seventeenth century its interest had been recognised in Java by the Dutch Bontius. But it is chiefly at the end of the nineteenth century that it had been studied by H. H. Wilson from the Sanskrit documents and by Csoma-da-Koros from the Tibetan version of the large-sized treatise the Sanskrit text of which has unfortunately been lost. Now it is more than a century that the first translation of Susruta was published in Latin by Hessler. The knowledge of numerous authors and Ayurvedic works has been placed at- the disposal of the medical public in France by the numerous articles of Lietard in the encyclopedic Dictionary of Medical Sciences numbering a hundred volumes of the state of Medicine and its history, in the second half of the nineteenth century (1864-1889). Thus, the study of the Indian Medicine came out of the province of the specialists in order to take its place in the classical science which even though secured, ought to be still greater.

Two works which describe in great details the ideas contained in the principal Sanskrit treatises, chiefly thus that relate to the pathology and nomenclature of the diseases have been consecrated to it; they are:-(l) commentary on the Hindu System of Medicine by Th. A. Wise (Calcutta, 1845) and (2) Medicine (in German) by J. Jolly, in the Encyclopaedia of Indo-Aryan Research of Buhler and Kielhorn. The first has to its credit two editions (1860 and 1900). The second deserves to-day, at the fiftieth anniversary of its publication (1901), an English translation which would secure for it a greater utilisation.

Since that time some important and new sources in the Tibetan versions have been discovered and studied notably by P. Cordier. The Tamil sources, unjustly neglected for a very long time, have been utili sed by Dr. Paramananda Mariadasson. A portion of the Mongol version of the same Tibetan translation of a Sanskrit treatise which had been formerly used by Csoma has been published with a Russian translation by Pozdneev. The place of the doctrines of the Medical schools in Indian philosophy has been noted by Dr. S. N. Dasgupta. Thanks to the progress in historical studies, it is possible hereafter to consider with greater precision than heretofore, the problems of the correspondences of the Indian Medicine with those of Greece, Iran, Islam and China. Besides, the therapeutics has been studied and the pharmacological value of the old Ayurvedic drugs has been fixed. But it will be profitable to consider the results already obtained half a century ago when Jolly brought them together.

We owe a great debt to the German Indologists for their incessant study of Indian literary and cultural history on strictly scientific lines for more than a century. In every branch of Indology we have to refer frequently to the solid work done by these great pioneers of Indological research. Among these pioneers the name of Dr. JolIy stands foremost in the field of the history of Indian Medicine on account of his monumental volume on "Medizin" in the Encyclopaedia of Indo-Aryan Research published fifty years ago. This volume is a model of critical research condensed with the utmost brevity of words without omitting any important detail of fact or text bearing on the history of Indian Medicine. It is a pity that such an important book, the study of which is so vital to the history of the Ayurveda, should remain without any translation in English or any modern Indian language in this Bharatavarsa-the home of the Ayurveda.

During the course of my study of the history and chronology of Indian medical literature and allied subjects like the history of Indian plants of medical and nutritive value, I have had occasion to consult Dr. JoIly's Medizin but was much handicapped in my efforts to study it closely in the absence of an English translation. I, therefore, received with alacrity the idea of preparing an English translation of Dr. Jolly's book entertained by my esteemed friend Shri C. G. Kashikar some years ago. It is highly creditable to Shri Kashikar that he should succeed in translating Dr. Jolly's book into English after years of labour in spite of his arduous work on the edition of the Rgveda and other Vedic texts, which have taken much of his time and energy. I feel confident that Shri Kashikar's English translation of Dr. Jolly's book prepared with scholarly care and zeal will be thank- fully received by all teachers and students of the Ayurveda not only in India but also in other countries where Indian literature and culture are studied with respect. The bibliographical Notes added to this translation prepared by Shri Kashikar enhance the value of the translation as they take note of all important books and articles on Indian Medicine published during the last fifty years. The reference value of the present translation with the appendices added by Shri Kashikar is very great not only to all lovers of the Ayurveda but to every research worker in the field of Indian Culture and Medicine. I congratulate Shri Kashik ar heartily upon the successful execution of a difficult task with the utmost regard for literary veracity and scholarly precision.