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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[CHAPTER VI
copious extracts. In the opening verse the author adviscs his readers that in his treatise he is going to bring together the best-known formulæ of the maharshis, or medical authorities of his tine. Following the usual practice of Indian writers, he does not name those authorities, assuming, of course, that the reader would at once recognize the standard work from which some particular formula was quoted. Still in the case of not a few formulæ we find he does name their authors. From the distinction thus made, it may reasonably be concluded that the formulæ, thus singled out by naming their authors, were quoted from what may be called the floating medical tradition,-it being necessary to indicate the authority for their recommendation, while those formulæ, in the case of which no author is named, were quoted from standard works of well-known authorities,
By far the largest number of formulæ, brought together in the Návanitaka, belongs to the latter class. The most conspicuous among the earliest medical teachers is Punarvasu, the son of Atri, commonly known as Atrêya. According to the Indian tradition he was a physician, teaching medicine in Taxila, in the north-west of India, about the time of Buddha. in the sixth century B.C. He is famous as the head of a great medical school of internal medicine. He is said to have had six disciples, who committed their master's teaching to writing, in tantras, larger treatises, or kalpas, smaller monographs. Some centuries later, attempts were made to epitomize these early tantras and kalpas, and gather their substance into samhitâs or compendia. Only two of these sahitâs have come down to our day. These are the Charaka Saràhitâ and the Bheda Sanhita. They are compendia based on the tantras and kalpas of Agnivēša and Bhêda respectively. Of the writings of the other four pupils of Atrêya, viz., Harita, Jâtûkarņa, Ksharapâni, and Parâsara, nothing has survived, except occasional short quotations in the mediæval medical literature. The compendium, known as Charaka Saihita, which professes to give Ātrêya's teaching, as reported by his pupil Agnivêśa, was compiled by a physician of Kashmir, called Charaka. The author, or rather compiler, of the Bhêda Savihita, which professes to give, in the main, the teaching of Atrêya as reported by his pupil Bhêda, is not known.
Both these sanhita, or compendia, must have been well-known standard books in the time of the author of the Nåvanitaka, for he makes copious extracts from them without naming them as his sources. From the Bhêda Samhita the following formulæ are taken:
(1) 4 yőrajiya-charna, vv. 48-55, in Bheda Samhita, VI, 16, vv. 33-456 (fol. 138). (2) Rasayanika-ghrit, vv. 1656-169a, in Bh, S., VI, 4 (fol, 1006). (3) Daianga-ghrita, vv. 201-3, in Bh. S., VI, 5.v. 176-200 (fol. 105a). (4) Sahachara-ghrita, v. 329-36, in Bh, S., VI, 24 (fol. 1536), mutilated. (5) Madhuyashikd-taila, vv. 337-43, in Bh. S., VI, 4 (fol. 103a), mutilated. (6-8) Three Åmådisara-yoga, vv, 407-12, in Bh, S., VI, 10 (fol. 11 6a). (9) Kasa-yoga, vy, 474-9, in Bh, S., VI, 19, v. 266-32 (fols. 143-4). (10) Karnaśdla-yoga, vv. 5346-7a, in Bh, S., VI, 22 (fols. 147-8).
* For an example of such a quotat on from Jatakarna see Brikapthadatta's commentary to Siddhayiga (c. 125C A.D.), pp. 21, 36, etc.
* Actually only two-thirds of the compendium were written by Charaka, probnbly in the 1st cent. B.C., the other one-third was added by the Kashmir physician Dridhabala, in the 9th cent. A.D. See my Article in the Jurnal, R.A.S., 1908, PP: 997 ff., and ibid., 1909, P. 857.
91 These were first discovered by Dr. P. Cordier, see his Recentes Découvertes, p. 21. The references in the text are to the folios of the unique Tanjore Manuscript of the Bhela Samhitd.
