A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c17.1

v1.c17.1

Some early European Indologists collected information on Caraka from MSS of his saṃhitā¹ and references to him and his work.² H.H. Wilson, one of the first European Indologists interested in Indian medicine, expressed the view that Caraka and Suśruta could not be later than the ninth or tenth century on account of references to them in the Purāṇas,³ while the style of their works pointed to a much earlier date.⁴ H.H. Wilson was also acquainted with the fact that Caraka had been translated into Arabic in the eighth or early ninth century;⁵ the earliest one to discover this was, however, F.R. Dietz.⁶ F. Kielhorn⁷ placed Caraka before the middle of the the seventh century because he is quoted three times by Bhartṛhari, who died in A.D. 651/652.⁸