A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c44.s8.t1: Contents

A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c44.s8.t1

Language: English

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The treatise consists of 405 verses,⁵⁴⁶ for the greater part ślokas, arranged in five chapters (prakaraṇa). It deals exclusively with the pathology of fevers, not with their treatment.

The opening verse is a maṅgala addressed to Gopāla, i.e., Kṛṣṇa. Chapter one (upodghātaprakaraṇa; forty verses) is about general principles of pathology and therapy. Chapter two (pṛthagjātaprakaraṇa; sixty-two verses) treats, as its title indicates, of fevers caused by one doṣa (44–51: anilajvara; 52–54: pittajvara; 55–56: kaphajvara).⁵⁴⁷ Apart from this, it is also concerned with fever in general, its nidāna, samprāpti, prodromes and symptoms (1–24), its number of types (25 and 32–35), and with irregular fevers (viṣamajvara: 36–43). Chapter three (dvandvajaprakaraṇa; twenty-five verses) has fevers by two doṣas for its subject. The fourth and longest chapter (tridoṣajaprakaraṇa; 241 verses) is about fevers by three doṣas. It distinguishes and describes prakṛtisamasamaveta types (2–15)⁵⁴⁸ and numerous vikṛtiṣamasamaveta types. After enumerating the symptoms of samnipāta fever in general (41cd–47),⁵⁴⁹ and those of the fever called abhinyāsa or hataujas (48–51ab),⁵⁵⁰ a verse is inserted about the swelling at the root of the ear which appears towards the end of a saṃnipāta fever (51cd–52ab),⁵⁵¹ whereupon the subject of abhinyāsa fever is continued, distinguishing several varieties of it (52cd–57ab). Then three series of thirteen saṃnipāta fevers of the vikṛtiviṣamasamaveta type are characterized: the first series (58–101ab) is said to be taken from the Bhālukitantra;⁵⁵² the second series (102–115) occurs, in a different order, in Śārṅgadhara’s Triśatī (175–187);⁵⁵³ the third series (119–138ab) is also found in that text.⁵⁵⁴ Chapter four includes descriptions of the fevers called madhara (139cd–142), pralepaka (143–144)⁵⁵⁵ and vātabalāsaka (145),⁵⁵⁶ the śitapūrva and dāhapūrva fevers, etc. (148cd–160),⁵⁵⁷ the irregular fevers together with their viparyaya types and their symptoms when they are located in the seven dhātus of the body (161–226), saumya and tīkṣṇa fevers (227–229), the stages of fever (230–236), and the signs of release from fever (237–241). Chapter five (āgantujaprakaraṇa; thirty-seven verses) deals with exogenous (āgantu) fevers (1–14), curability and incurability of fevers (15–17), and signs indicating the approach of death (18–33).

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Sources indicated by the author are: Bhāluki (4.101 and 214), Caraka, (1.2; 5.37), Jejjaṭa (3.20; 4.176), Khāraṇādi (4.36–37),⁵⁵⁸ Mādhava (4.153), muni (i.e., Vāgbhaṭa; 4.197), Nāgabhartar (4.166), ṛṣi (i.e., Vāgbhaṭa; 1.33), sāmpradāyikāḥ (4.212), Suśruta (3.19; 4.36; 5.37), tāntrikāḥ (4.53), tārkikāḥ (2.21), Vāgbhaṭa (4.16, 41, 153), and Vṛddhasuśruta (4.102). The Carakasaṃhitā, Suśrutasaṃhitā, Aṣṭāngahṛdayasaṃhitā, Aṣṭāngasaṃgraha and Mādhavanidāna were, however, utilized on a larger scale than appears from the above list.⁵⁵⁹ In a number of instances the author refers to his own view as opposed to that of others.⁵⁶⁰

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*Special features* The author distinguishes first the usual six types of irregular fever: satata, prātyahika (= anyedyuṣka), tṛtīyaka, caturthaka, tṛtīyakaviparyaya and caturthakaviparyaya (2. 38–39), but describes later four viparyaya types: satata-, anyedyuṣka-, tṛtīyaka-, and caturthakaviparyaya (4.186–189).⁵⁶¹ Fevers by vāta are said to be of three varieties: satata, śuddhasatata and śuddhaprātyahika (2.42). Fevers by two doṣas may present the same three varieties, with the exception of the fever by kapha and pitta (3.14), because vāta is absent there. Tṛtīyaka and caturthaka, however, are never caused by two doṣas, but always by three (3.24). The distinction between prakṛtisamasamaveta and vikṛtiviṣamasamaveta fevers,⁵⁶² and that between prākṛta and vaikṛta types,⁵⁶³ have an important place throughout the work, as well as the periods of time during which a particular fever presents itself.⁵⁶⁴ The madhara fever, characterized by eruptions in the throat and on the chest, together with lassitude (tandrā), and occurring in Mahārāṣṭra, is described as an example of those fevers which were omitted by the ṛṣis and ācāryas (4.138–142).⁵⁶⁵

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*The author* At the end of the work (5.36), the author mentions that his name is Nārāyaṇa, that his father instructed him in the śāstras, and that his brother was his preceptor in medicine. According to the colophon, the author’s name is Nārāyaṇa Paṇḍita and his father’s Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita.⁵⁶⁶ These indications suffice to identify him as the younger brother of Nā-

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ganātha, who wrote the Nidānapradīpa, and as one of the teachers of Lakṣmaṇa Paṇḍita, who composed the Yogacandrikā.⁵⁶⁷ Besides the Jvaranirṇaya, Nārāyaṇa wrote a commentary on Śārṅgadhara’s Triśatī.

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*Date* Nārāyaṇa can be assigned to the sixteenth century, since he was the younger brother of Nāganātha and one of the teachers of Lakṣmaṇa Paṇḍita. This date is corroborated by his commentary on the Triśatī, because the latter work was written during the fifteenth century.

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*The Rājanighaṇṭu or Nighaṇṭurāja* The Rājanighaṇṭu⁵⁶⁸ or Nighaṇṭurāja,⁵⁶⁹ also called Abhidhānacūḍāmaṇi,⁵⁷⁰ is the largest extant lexicon of materia medica; it deals with the names and properties of medicinal substances, as well as with a series of related subjects.

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*Contents*⁵⁷¹ The work consists of about 3,300 verses,⁵⁷² arranged in twenty-two chapters (varga), preceded by an introduction (prastāvanā; twenty-three verses), and followed by a section on ekārthas and anekārthas (258 verses). One of the introductory verses (3) contains a salutation addressed to Śiva, Brahmā, Indra, the Aśvins, Ātreya,⁵⁷³ Dhanvantari, Caraka, and Suśruta.

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The author declares to have collected all those names of medicinal substances which are useful to a physician, regardless whether they are of Sanskrit, Prakrit, or Apabhraṃśa origin (10). He announces his intention to describe the drugs according to their traditional usage (rūḍhi), svabhāva, local names (deśyokti), special characteristics (lāñchana), names based upon similarities (upamā), vīrya, and names employed in foreign countries (itarāhvaya) (13). He adds that he has taken into consideration their names in the languages of Karṇāṭa and Mahārāṣṭra, and that he regards it as useful to know their names in the languages of Āndhra and Lāṭa⁵⁷⁴ (18). A short table of contents is found at the end of the introduction (20–21). The first chapters have no parallel in other nighaṇṭus.

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Chapter one (ānupādivarga; thirty-nine verses) is concerned with the characteristics of the various types of country (deśa) and soil (kṣetra), the deities presiding over the types of soil, the characteristics and uses of trees and other kinds of plants and their products as dependent on the type of soil they are growing on, the definitions of the five classes of plants, the characteristics of plants considered to be of the male, female or neuter gender, and the relationship between parts of plants and the five mahābhūtas. Chapter two (dharaṇyādivarga; seventy-one verses) deals with synonyms for earth, mountain, forest, etc.; it also contains a list of nakṣatravṛkṣas.⁵⁷⁵

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Chapters three to thirteen contain enumerations of the names and properties of medicinal substances, arranged in the following groups: guḍūcyādi-,⁵⁷⁶ śatāhvādi-,⁵⁷⁷ parpaṭādi-,⁵⁷⁸ pippalyādi-,⁵⁷⁹ mūlakādi-,⁵⁸⁰ śālmalyādi-,⁵⁸¹ prabhadrādi-,⁵⁸² karavīrādi-,⁵⁸³ āmrādi-,⁵⁸⁴ candanādi-,⁵⁸⁵ and suvarṇādivarga.⁵⁸⁶

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Chapters fourteen to seventeen are about articles of food: water, the sugarcane and its products, types of sugar derived from other plants than the sugarcane, honey, and alcoholic drinks (chapter fourteen: pānīyādivarga); milk and other dairy produce, kāñjika and similar products of acid fermentation, urines and oils (chapter fifteen: kṣīrādivarga); grain and pulse (chapter sixteen: śalyādivarga); meat (chapter seventeen: māṃsādivarga).

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Chapter eighteen (manuṣyādivarga) is about names of human beings, anatomical terms, and some related subjects, chapter nineteen (simhādivarga) about the names of animals, chapter twenty (rogādivarga) about the names of diseases, about medicinal preparations, the tastes and their combinations, etc., chapter twenty-one (sattvādivarga) about the three guṇas and the character of human beings dominated by one of these, the three doṣas and the constitutions, weights and measures, divisions of time, the quarters of the sky, etc., and chapter twenty-two (miśrakādivarga) about groups of medicinal substances.

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The work ends with ekārthas and anekārthas, the latter being divided into groups of names having two up to eleven meanings. These lists of ekārthas and anekārthas pose a number of problems since some of the ekārthas have one meaning in the Nighaṇṭu,⁵⁸⁷ while, moreover, some synonyms figuring in these lists are not found there.⁵⁸⁸

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⁵⁸⁷ [text of the note]

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⁵⁸⁸ [text of the note]

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The style of the Rājanighaṇṭu, especially that of the prastāvanā and the concluding verses of each varga, is rather ornate. The arrangement of the medicinal substances differs considerably from that found in the Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu, apart from the contents of a few vargas, notably the śatāhvādi- and candanādivarga. The strings of synonyms, usually longer than those of the Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu, are rarely identical with those of the latter work,⁵⁸⁹ whereas the verses describing the properties of drugs more often are.⁵⁹⁰ A conspicuous feature is the mention of the number of synonyms at the end of each series.

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⁵⁸⁹ [text of the note]

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⁵⁹⁰ [text of the note]

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The Rājanighaṇṭu describes more medicinal substances than the Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu⁵⁹¹ and distinguishes a larger number of varieties. On the other hand, a small number of drugs included in the Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu are absent from the Rājanighaṇṭu, e.g., śvāsāri (Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu 1.72), kapaṭa (1.82–83), guṇtha (1.83–84), kāsa ghnī (1.98–100), vijayā (1.130–131), śvetapuṣpī (1.252–253), the varieties of yavānī (2.93–94), girisindūra (3.103–104), vaṭasaugandhika (3.114–115), jalapippalī (4.64–65), and kiṅkirāta (5.156–158). The compilatory character of the Rājanighaṇṭu is, in the same way as in the Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu, apparent from quotations,⁵⁹² which are, however, less frequent than in the latter work.

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⁵⁹¹ [text of the note]

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⁵⁹² [text of the note]

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Sources mentioned by the author of the Rājanighaṇṭu in the introductory verses are: the Dhanvantarinighaṇṭu, the works of Madana⁵⁹³ and Halāyudha,⁵⁹⁴ the Viśvaprakāśa,⁵⁹⁵ the Amarakoṣa, and the Śeṣarāja.⁵⁹⁶ He states explicitly that Dhanvantari's treatise is his chief authority and model. Some more works referred to are Bṛhatsuśruta, Nāradīya(tantra), and Nārāyaṇī.⁵⁹⁷

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⁵⁹³ [text of the note]

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⁵⁹⁴ [text of the note]

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⁵⁹⁵ [text of the note]

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⁵⁹⁶ [text of the note]

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⁵⁹⁷ [text of the note]

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The Rājanighaṇṭu is quoted or referred to in Ambikādattasāstrin's commentary on the Rasendrasārasaṃgraha, Baladeva Prasāda Miśra's Āyurvedacintāmaṇi, Bhānuji Dīkṣita's commentary on the Amarakoṣa,⁵⁹⁸ the Bṛhannighaṇṭuratnāka-

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⁵⁹⁸ [text of the note]

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ra,⁵⁹⁹ Cūḍāmaṇimiśra's Rasakāmadhenu, Gulrājśarmamiśra's commentary on the Āyurvedaprakāśa,⁶⁰⁰ Hāraṇacandra's commentary on the Suśrutasaṃhitā, Haridattaśāstrin's commentary on the Rasataraṅgiṇī, Indu's Śaśilekhā on the Aṣṭāṅgasamgraha,⁶⁰¹ Jīvānandavidyāsāgara's commentaries on Gopālakṛṣṇa's Rasendrasārasaṃgraha and Kaṇāda's Nāḍīvijñāna, Khare's commentary on the Rasaratnasamuccaya, Lakṣmīrāma's commentary on the Siddhabheṣajamaṇimālā, Mādhava's Āyurvedaprakāśa, the Pāradasaṃhitā, Raghunātha's Bhojanakutūhala,⁶⁰² the Śālīgrāmanighaṇṭubhūṣaṇa of the Bṛhannighaṇṭuratnākara, Āśubodha and Nityabodha Senagupta's commentary on the Rasaratnasamuccaya,⁶⁰³ Priyavrat Śarmā's auto-commentary on his Dravyaguṇasūtra, Śivadattamiśra's commentary on his Śivakoṣa,⁶⁰⁴ the Tāmbūlamañjarī, the Smṛtyarthasāgara,⁶⁰⁵ Yādavjī Trikamjī's Rasāmṛta, the Yogaratnākara,⁶⁰⁶ and Yogīndranāthasena's commentary on the Carakasaṃhitā.⁶⁰⁷ It is quoted as Abhidhānacūḍāmaṇi in Kṛṣṇadatta's commentary on Trimalla's Śataślokī.