Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.16

c6.s1.16

So far it has been impossible to trace Gaṅgādhar’s recension back any farther than his own Berhampore edition. When we add—what will be shown in detail in subsequent paragraphs (§§ 9, 10)—that that recension is not only full of incongruities and inconsistencies, but that it also presupposes a knowledge of the system of Suśruta, some of whose peculiar terms (e. g. kūrca, or cluster of bones) it adopts, the conclusion is irresistible that, in all probability, it reproduces no genuine text of any Charaka MS., but is an ill-considered attempt of Gaṅgādhar himself to reconstruct or (as he thought) improve the text of the, perhaps grossly incorrect, MS., or MSS. of Charaka’s Compendium, which he may have had at his disposal in the preparation of his edition. The spurious recension, thus originated, was afterwards unquestioningly and thoughtlessly adopted by Gaṅgādhar’s Bengal successors. All the more credit is due to Jīvānanda for preserving, in his earlier edition of 1877, the genuine recension of the text of Charaka’s Compendium; and it is much to be regretted that in his recent re-edition of 1896 (p. 351, clause 5) he should have been misled into substituting the spurious recension of Gaṅgādhar.