A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c3: Preface
A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c3
- Language
- English
Preface
v1.c3.1
The initial impetus to the writing of this survey of Indian medical literature is due to Prof. J. Gonda, who, more than twenty years ago, after the publication of my thesis on the *Mādhavanidāna*, asked me to consider composing a concise book on the subject, to be issued as one of the fascicles of *A history of Indian literature* he was editing.
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Rashness made me comply with his request. Rather soon it became apparent that a reliable survey required a preparatory descriptive analysis of the texts and a study of their chronological positions.
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Accordingly, I began writing these analyses. This time-consuming activity resulted in the accumulation of an amount of information that could not possibly be compressed in the space allotted to the planned fascicle. The work kept growing, gradually assuming a shape and size that necessitated abandonment of the original design and another way of publication.
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After large stretches had been written, the prospect of the possibility of publication led to a collaboration with The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London, and, in particular, with Dr. D. Wujastyk, attached to this Institute. Over several years he has been helpful to me in many respects. I appreciate the efforts he made in looking after my interests. His expertise and advice facilitated the conversion of my writings into computer files. I acknowledge with gratitude the secretarial assistance of the Wellcome Institute over a long period of time. Several persons spent much time on reading my hand-written pages and processing them. In a later stage, secretarial help has also been forthcoming from the Seminar für Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients of the University of Hamburg, thanks to Prof. R.E. Emmerick, and from the Institut für Geschichte der Medizin of the University of Munich, thanks to Prof. P.U. Unschuld.
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After interruption of my contacts with the Wellcome Institute, due to editorial problems, wholehearted support from a number of Dutch organizations and several persons from my own country safeguarded my work from the danger of remaining unpublished. The offer to accept it as a set of volumes of the Groningen Oriental Series secured its future.
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I acknowledge with gratitude the unconditional readiness to further my interests of Prof. H.T. Bakker of the Institute for Religious Studies of the University of Groningen and of Prof. H.W. Bodewitz of the Kern Institute of the University of Leiden. My publisher, Egbert Forsten, mobilized the resources at his disposal and was always helpful by word and deed. The expertise of Dr. Roelf Barkhuis made the production process run smoothly and efficiently.
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The publication of my work has been made possible by grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the J. Gonda Foundation of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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I should like to thank Prof. R.E. Emmerick of the University of Hamburg for his sincere interest in my work, which has encouraged and stimulated me.
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All colleagues and friends who have helped me in persevering during long years of labour may be assured of my appreciation of their assistance.
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My daily prop and stay has been my wife Hannie, without whose loyalty this work could never have been completed.