A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c43.s2.11

v3.c43.s2.11

The treatise²²⁶ contains a series of prescriptions, many of which have separate names, together with indications on their use. It begins as an exposition of the Bhagavant to Jīvaka, who is called ‘the king of physicians’ in the Khotanese version. The Sanskrit text is mainly in ślokas and so corrupt that it can hardly be read. The Khotanese translation, based on this corrupt Sanskrit text that was hardly intelligible to the one who rendered it into Khotanese,²²⁷ is also metrical and is enlarged with regard to the Sanskrit original; it enumerates all the items of comprehensive Sanskrit terms like *daśamūla*, etc., and gives detailed instructions on the way the medicines should be prepared. Its most striking feature is the insistence on specifying in each instance the appropriate quantity of each drug and the amount of milk, water or oil required, also when those items are not found in the original Sanskrit. For this purpose a great variety of terms of measure is used.²²⁸