A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c26.s17.5

v1.c26.s17.5

An important issue that remains to be discussed is the relationship between the classical text of Tibetan medicine, called Rgyud-bźi,¹¹⁹¹ and the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā. This relationship has been studied by R.E. Emmerick,¹¹⁹² who discovered that at least one stanza of the Rgyud-bźi is absolutely identical with the corresponding passage in the Tibetan translation of Vāgbhaṭa’s work.¹¹⁹³ Moreover, consideration must be taken of the fact that many chapters of the Rgyud-bźi correspond extremely closely to the Tibetan translation of the Hṛdaya, if allowance is made for the adjustment that is required to compare the nine-syllable lines of the Rgyud-bźi with the seven-syllable lines of the Vāgbhaṭa translation. The question raised by this state of affairs concerns the relative chronology of the two Tibetan texts. Did the translator of the Hṛdaya make use of an already existing Tibetan version, traditionally ascribed to Vairocana, or is the Rgyud-bźi based on Rin-chen bzaṅ-po’s Tibetan translation of the Hṛdaya? This question cannot be solved with any certainty.¹¹⁹⁴