Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.14

c6.s1.14

On the other hand, the recension of Gaṅgādhar—so far as I have been able to ascertain—is absolutely destitute of all support. It first appears in the Berhampore edition of 1879, published by Dharanidhar Ray. Neither Gaṅgādhar nor Dharanidhar refers to any MSS., nor does either mention any variae lectiones. The same recension next appears in the Calcutta edition of Avinās Chandra Kaviratna (1884). He does not state his sources; but, to all appearance, he simply reprints from the Berhampore edition. The same recension once more appears in the Calcutta edition of Debendranath Sen and Upendranath Sen (1897). In their preface the joint editors profess not only to have collected, with much trouble and expense, ‘many manuscripts from Kāsī [Benares], Kashmir, Bombay, Draviḍa [Madras ?], Poona, and other places,’ but also to have consulted some very old (prācīnatama) and correct (viśuddha) MSS. in their own possession. It will be well to receive this statement with considerable reserve; for it is well known that MSS. of Charaka's Compendium are neither so common, nor so old, nor so correct as the joint editors suggest. They very rarely quote any variae lectiones, and in the few cases in which they do so they never refer to any particular MS. authority. Thus in the whole Anatomical Section, comprising eight chapters (seventy-six pages in print), they mention only two unimportant, and unidentified variants (in the eighth chapter, p. 429). In the seventh chapter of that section which contains the statement on the skeleton, they mention no variants at all, nor give any indication whatsoever of their being aware of the existence of an entirely discrepant recension. Under these circumstances, despite the claim made in the preface, the conclusion is unavoidable that the joint edition is essentially nothing more than a reprint from Avinās Chandra's, and ultimately from Gaṅgādhar's editions. The three aforesaid editions are prints produced in Calcutta, or at least in Bengal. Recently the same recension has been published in Bombay, by Sankara Shastri, in a cheap edition.