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A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c42.s24: Date

A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c42.s24

Language
English

Date

v3.c42.s24.1

Mādhava’s terminus post quem can only be deduced from the sources of the *Nidāna* and *Cikitsā*. Since the greater part of the *Rogaviniścaya* consists of stanzas borrowed from the *Carakasaṃhitā*, *Suśrutasaṃhitā*, *Aṣṭāngahṛdayasaṃhitā*, *Aṣṭāngasaṃgraha*, and *Siddhasāra*, and since the *Mādhavacikitsā* contains many verses quoted from the *Siddhasāra*, their dates of composition cannot be earlier than about A.D. 650. The terminus ante quem is the date of Vṛnda, about A.D. 900, because the *Mādhavanidāna* is referred to in the *Siddhayoga*. 217

v3.c42.s24.2

Moreover, it has been common knowledge for a long time that a number of Arabic authors mention an Indian medical treatise that may be the *Mādhavanidāna*. 218 Among the Indian medical works recorded by Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‘a (who died in 1270) in the twelfth book of his ‘classes of physicians’, the *‘Uyūn al-anbā’ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbā’*, 219 one finds a treatise with the title *bdān* or *ydān*, 220 already corrected into *ndān*, i.e., *Nidāna*, by Dietz 221 and H.H. Wilson. 222 Uṣaybi‘a observes that the signs of 404 diseases are described in the work without indicating their treatment. 223 This characterization points rather to a work like the *Mādhavanidāna* than to the *Nidānasthāna* of one of the classical saṃhitās, because a restricted number of diseases is dealt with in the latter under that heading. The *Nidāna* is also mentioned by Arabic authors who were earlier than Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‘a, namely al-Rāzī and Ibn Wādiḥ al-Ya‘qūbī. 224 The latter describes it in the same way as Uṣaybi‘a. Important new evidence came to light in 1928 with the edition of ‘Alī ibn Sahl al-Ṭabarī’s *Firdaws al-ḥikma*, i.e., Paradise of Wisdom. 225 In the so-called Indian books of this treatise 226 several Indian medical works are mentioned: *jrk*, *ssrd*, *ndān*, and *aṣṭāngahṛdy*, i.e., Caraka, Suśruta, *Nidāna* and *Aṣṭāngahṛdaya*. It is highly probable that *ndān* is the *Mādhavanidāna*, as no other famous Indian book with a similar title could have spread to the Arab world at so early a date (about A.D. 850). This reference to the *Nidāna* is the earliest one known in Arab literature. Because of its importance it may be expedient to summarize the most salient facts about this work and its author. 227

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Abū’l Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Sahl al-Ṭabarī completed his *Firdaws al-ḥikma* fī ṭibb in Sāmarrā in the third year of the reign of the caliph al-Mutawakkil, i.e., in 849/850. It is a work of large scope, giving a survey of the Greek, Syrian and Indian systems of medicine as known to the Muslims. Its arrangement is less methodical than that of later medical works in Arabic, but it is often quoted by al-Rāzī and others. Particularly important is the thirtieth and last section of the *Paradise of Wisdom*, which deals with Indian medicine. In thirty-six chapters, the majority of which are rather short, it succinctly describes the theory and general therapeutic principles of Indian medicine, while at the end a number of recipes are found. The translation of Sanskrit medical terms into Arabic is usually correct, 228 which indicates that ‘Alī ibn Sahl made use of the translations of Sanskrit medical works executed by order of the first ‘Abbāsid caliphs, in particular Hārūn al-Rashīd (768–809), and encouraged by the Barmakids.²²⁹

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²²⁹ See p. 68.

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The Nidāna as a separate book is mentioned once in the Indian books of the Paradise of Wisdom. The term Nidāna appears on two other occasions, where it is not the Mādhavanidāna that is referred to, but the Nidāna section of some other treatise. Neither a direct translation of parts of the Mādhavanidāna is traceable nor of passages from the Caraka-, Suśruta- and Aṣṭāngahṛdayasaṃhitā, for ‘Alī ibn Sahl only gives summaries of Indian medical doctrines.

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Accepting the evidence supplied by ‘Alī ibn Sahl and later Arabic authors and taking into account the time needed for the work of an Indian writer to become so famous as to be translated into Arabic in Persia, and to be employed as one of his chief sources by an Arabic author in 849/850, it appears reasonable to suppose that Mādhava lived in the eighth century.

Cites (10)