Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c8.25

c8.25

The Rugviniścaya or Mādhavanidāna of Mādhava or Mādhavakara⁶, son of Indukara, is the chief work on pathology (Nidāna) and is, therefore, simply called Nidāna⁷. The order in which this work treats the important diseases in 79 Nidānas along with their causes, symptoms and complications, has been the standard not only for Vṛnda and Vangasena but also for all time to come, and is also preserved in such works like e. g. Bhāvaprakāśa which besides quote particularly Caraka and Suśruta. Mādhavanidāna is often literally identical with Caraka and Suśruta and in this case the borrowing has to be taken for granted; but his system, enumeration and description of diseases mark an advance on Caraka and Suśruta. Thus he devotes a special chapter for small pox (Masūrikā) whereas Suśruta mentions it only in minor diseases (Cf. § 66). The anteriority of Suśruta to Mādhavanidāna is proved by the Indian tradition (even though it is doubted by Haas), since e.g. Caraka and Suśruta are cited by Vāgbhaṭa, while Mādhavanidāna is not mentioned by him. As the predecessor of Vṛnda, Mādhava may be placed in the 9th century at the latest, or in the 8th if Mādhava may be identified with Badan, Yadan (i. e. Nidān?)—a pathological work translated very early in Arabic. The numerous commentaries prove the fame of Mādhavanidāna, and of these, eight are mentioned in Aufrecht's Catalogus Catalogorum. The most famous is the often printed Madhukośa composed by Vijayarakṣita and Śrīkaṇṭhadatta in the 14th or 15th century⁸.