A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c26.s3.1

v1.c26.s3.1

One of the most controversial issues concerning the date of the Saṃgraha, as well as that of the Hṛdaya, stems from some remarks of I-ching, a Chinese Buddhist monk, in the report of his travels in India and the Malay archipelago.²⁶⁹ After an exposition on the eight branches of Indian medicine, the author says: “These eight arts formerly existed in eight books, but lately a man epitomized them and made them into one bundle. All physicians in the five parts of India practise according to this book, and any physician who is well versed in it never fails to live by the official pay”.²⁷⁰