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A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c43.s33.t4: Date

A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c43.s33.t4

Language
English

Date

v3.c43.s33.t4.1

It has long been known that Vaṅgasena cannot be dated later than the first half of the thirteenth century, on account of the dates of some early MSS. 1568 J. Jolly claimed that he might have been a contemporary of king Lakṣmaṇasena of the Sena dynasty. 1569 P.K. Gode considered him to have lived in the twelfth century at the latest, basing this view on quotations from Vaṅgasena in Hemādri's commentary on the Aṣṭāngahṛdayasaṃhitā. 1570 As Hemādri lived in the second half of the thirteenth century and P.K. Gode assumed a rather long interval of seventy-five years between the two, his conclusion was rejected by N.N. Das Gupta 1571 and H.V. Trivedi, 1572 who placed Vaṅgasena in the thirteenth century. D. Ch. Bhattacharyya discovered later that the Vaṅgasenasamgraha is quoted by Niścalakara, 1573 which lowers the date to the period before A.D. 1150–1200. 1574 Vaṅgasena is assigned to the period 950–1050 by Rām Kumār Rāy and Rājiv Kumār Rāy. 1575

v3.c43.s33.t4.2

Evidence concerning Vaṅgasena’s chronological position is, as appears from the foregoing, of diverse kinds. Apart from the early MSS, which remain valuable testimonies, it derives from the text of his treatise and quotations from it in later treatises. The contents of the Cikitsāsārasamgraha show that Vaṅgasena was posterior to Mādhava, the author of the Rugviniścaya, which work he largely utilized, and Vṛnda, from whose Siddhayoga he borrowed. The common assumption that Vaṅgasena took many recipes from Cakrapāṇidatta’s Cikitsāsamgraha, 1576 although still to be tested, appears to be acceptable. 1577

v3.c43.s33.t4.3

The sources specified by Vaṅgasena are of no avail in fixing his date. The rather developed state of rasasāstra prohibits placing Vaṅgasena earlier than Cakrapāṇidatta, while the absence of the examination of the pulse as a diagnostic tool forces us to regard him as earlier than Śārṅgadhara.

v3.c43.s33.t4.4

A particular piece of internal evidence, namely the attribution of a formula to Śrī-viśvarūpa, 1578 led P.V. Sharma to date Vaṅgasena in the reign of king Viśvarūpasena of the Sena dynasty, who acceded to the throne in A.D. 1205 1579 or 1206. 1580 This view is, however, contradicted by the early date of some quotations from Vaṅgasena, 1581 which are of considerable value in determining Vaṅgasena’s terminus ante quem. Those found in Hemādri point to a date earlier than the second half of the thirteenth century; the single quotation in Ḍalhaṇa’s commentary on the Suśrutasamhitā lowers the limit to about A.D. 1200, and, finally, the quotation in Niścalakara’s Ratnaprabhā enables to conclude that Vaṅgasena lived in the period A.D. 1050–1100. 1582

Cites (7)