Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c8.64

c8.64

§ 13. The Central-Asiatic MSS. — The famous *Bower MS* found in a Buddhistic Stūpa in Kashgar (China) is probably written by travelling Hindus in the Indian Gupta script about 450 A. D. according to palaeographic criterion. The writing material is birch-bark lengthwise cut like the South and West Indian palm-leaves. Of the seven Sanskrit texts contained in this MS three are purely medical. The first medical book contains first of all a panegyric on garlic (*Lasuna*), then various recipes, particularly for eye-diseases. The second and more extensive work called *Navanitaka* (i. e. quintessence) deals in 14 Adhyāyas that are preserved, with powders, butter decoctions, oils, mixed recipes, *basti*, elixirs, broths, aphrodisiacs, eye-ointments, hair-dyes, *Terminalia Chebula*, bitumen, *plumbago zeylanica* and childwelfare. The third work contains 14 medical formulae in only 72 verses. The sixth text, a serpent-spell against the bite of cobra, has also a medical character. The language of these texts is older than that of Caraka and Suśruta. Hoernle deserves thanks for the arduous but nonetheless completely successful decipherment and translation and careful edition of the MS furnished with photographic fascimiles and explanatory remarks¹.