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Ayur-veda Literature
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so well taught for the good of the people by the great sage Dhanvantari to the good pupil Suśruta became famous all over the world as Suśruta-samhitā, and is regarded as the best and the chief of the threefold Ayur-veda literature, and that it was strung together in the form of a book by no other person than Nagarjuna1. Cakrapāņi also in his Bhānumatī refers to a reviser (pratisamskartṛ); but he does not mention his name. Gayadāsa's pañjikā on Suśruta, Suśruta-candrikā or Nyāya-candrikā, has an observation on the eighth verse of the third chapter of the Nidāna-sthāna, in which he gives a different reading by Nagarjuna, which is the same as the present reading of Suśruta in the corresponding passage2. Again, Bhatta Narahari in his Tippani on the Astanga-hrdaya-samhitā, called Vagbhaṭa-khandana-mandana, in discussing mūḍha-garbhanidāna, annotates on the reading vasti-dvāre vipannāyāh, which Vägbhata changes in borrowing from Suśruta's vastimāra-vipannāyah (11.8.14), and says that vasti-dvāre is the reading of Nagarjuna3. That Nagarjuna had the habit of making supplements to his revisions of works is further testified by the fact that a work called Yogaśataka, attributed to Nagarjuna, had also a supplementary chapter, called Uttara-tantra, in addition to its other chapters, Kāya-cikitsā, Śālākya-tantra, Śalya-tantra, Vișa-tantra, Bhūtavidyā, Kaumāratantra, Rasayana-tantra and Vajikaraṇa-tantra. This makes it abundantly clear that what passes as the Suśruta-samhitā was either entirely strung together from the traditional teachings of Suśruta or entirely revised and enlarged by Nagarjuna on the basis of a nuclear work of Suśruta which was available to Nagarjuna. But was Nagarjuna the only person who revised the Suśruta-samhitā? Dalhana's statement that it was Nagarjuna who was the reviser of the work (pratisamskartāpiha Nāgārjuna eva) is attested by the verse of the Muralidhar edition (Nāgārjunenaiva grathita); but the use of the emphatic word eva in both suggests that there may have been other editions or revisions of Suśruta by other writers as well. The hopelessly muddled condition of the readings,
1
Upadiṣṭā tu ya samyag Dhanvantari-maharṣiņā Suśrutaya susisyāya lokānām hita-vanchaya sarvatra bhuvi vikhyātā nämna Suśruta-samhitā Ayur-vedat-rayimadhye sreṣṭhā manyā tathottamā
să ca Nagarjunenaiva grathită grantha-rupataḥ.
2 Nagarjunas tu pathati; sarkarā sikatā meho bhasmakhyo 'śmari-vaikrtam iti. In the Nirnaya-Sagara edition of 1915 this is II. 3. 13, whereas in Jivānanda's edition it is II. 3. 8. See also Dr Cordier's Récentes Découvertes de MSS. Médicaux Sanscrits dans l'Inde, p. 13.
3 ata eva Nagarjunair vasti-dvāra iti paṭhyate.
