Nadivijnanam and Nadiprakasham

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 72

this tribe, while marching with his army through their territory, on his way to Babylonia where he died.
Sri Sankara Sen, the author of Nadiprakasam traces his origin to this physician tribe called Ambostoi ( Ambasthagosthi ) [ "asidambasthagosthijani.... tadatmajah Sankara-senanama tenaiva tene DhamaniPrakasahı”). It cannot be said how far his claim is historically true.
The ancient Buddhist literature mentions the University of Taxila (Taksasila] where Medical Science was taught to the Indian medical students coming over there from different parts of India. Jivaka, son of King Bimbisar the Magadha King, was one of the best medical students of Taksasila university.
A study of Nadiprakasam (light of pulse) reveals scientific ideas and practices of the ancient Hindus with a distinct trend to pathology in the Indian Medical Science. It appears that during the time of Sri Sankara Sen a mass of medical information on the diagnosis of different types of diseases on the symptoms of beatings of the pulse was accumulated in the treatise of Ayurveda.
(1) See the colophon in the end of the text.
Preface