Local Government in Ancient India c15.4

c15.4

Similarly, no. 182 of 1915 refers to the benefactions of a Vaiśya named Mādhava, who constructed the surrounding halls of a temple, and also a Maṇḍapa called Jananātha-maṇḍapa where, by the royal grant of Vīrarājendra-Deva (A. D. 1062), were established (1) a school for the study of the Vedas, Śāstras, Grammar, *Rūpāvatāra* (perhaps the name of a grammatical work recently discovered), &c., (2) a hostel for students, and (3) a hospital. The students were provided with food, bathing-oil on Saturdays, and with oil for lamps. The hospital was named Vīraśolan (*scil.* Vīra-Cola), and provided with fifteen beds for sick people. The staff and establishment for the school-hostel and hospital comprised one physician in whose family the privilege of administering medicines was hereditary, one surgeon, two servants who fetched drugs, supplied fuel, and did other services for the hospital, two maidservants for nursing the patients, and one general servant for the hostel and hospital. Among the medicines stored in the hospital are mentioned *āsā-harītaki*, *gomūtra-harītaki*, *bhallātaka-harītaki*, *bilvādi-ghṛta*, *vajra-kalpa*, *kalyāṇa-lavaṇa*, and some varieties of *taila* or oils—medicines which are still in use under the indigenous medical systems of the land.