Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c8.21

c8.21

Cakradatta, more fully Cakrapāṇidatta, in short also Cakrapāṇi or Cakra, was undoubtedly a Bengali. This prolific author, as he has described himself, was the younger son of one Nārāyaṇa who served king Nayapāla of Bengal as Rasavatyadhikārin and minister, and therefore may well be placed in 1060⁶. His most famous and often printed⁷ work is a comprehensive therapy, the Cikitsāsārasaṃgraha which, is mostly copied from Vṛnda's Siddhayoga whom Cakradatta expressly mentions as his chief source⁸. Śivadāsasena has written a commentary on this work of Cakrapāṇidatta, which is already printed⁹. His commentary is based on another older commentary on the same work. Śivadāsasena has also commented on another work of Cakrapāṇi, namely Dravyaguṇasaṃgraha¹⁰; and at the end of this commentary he denotes himself as the son of Anantasena, the Ruler of Bengal (*Gauḍabhūmipati*), consequently descended apparently from a branch of Vaidya dynasty of the Senas in Bengal. The Dravyaguṇasaṃgraha contains, as the title shows, chiefly a short survey of the effects of the medicinal stuffs, like the analogous sections in Caraka and Suśruta. His *Sarvasārasaṃgraha* and *Śabdacandrikā*¹¹—a collection and explanation of pharmaceutical and botanical technical terms, are still not printed, and his both great commentaries on Caraka and Suśruta are partly printed (Cf. § 7 ff.). Cakradatta shows himself to be conversant with the calcination of certain metals¹², but he does not appear to have known opium and Nāḍīparīkṣā and mentions quicksilver only rarely¹³.