A History of Indian Medical Literature v2.c30.524

v2.c30.524

32 R.K. Śarmā and Bhagwan Dash (Preface XXVIII to ed. jj) state that thirty-four titles belong to the first, eighty-six titles to the second category. Chapter titles of āyurvedic works formed by the secondary suffix -īya and meaning ‘containing [the words XY]’, i.e., in most cases, ‘beginning’ with these words, were studied by A. Wezler (1993), who concludes that “they testify to the survival of a device developed in the Brāhmaṇas and used in still later Vedic literature by priest-scholars for the purpose of easy and at the same time clear reference to certain parts of the texts - and a device at that which, at least originally, presupposed an oral transmission, and a corresponding knowledge, of the texts referred to.” See the table of endings in -īya in A. Wezler (1993): 302–304 (those from the Bhela- and Kāśyapasamhitā are not listed).