A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c46.1217

v3.c46.1217

No particulars are available about the author. The quotations from Gaṅgādhara’s *Gandhasāra* in the *Gandhavāda* establish that the latter treatise is posterior to the former. The references to Bhoja and Siṃhaṇa point to a date later than the first half of the thirteenth century, the period in which Siṃhaṇa, the Yādava king of Devagiri, lived. P.K. Gode 567 was of the opinion that the type of old Marāṭhī in the commentary of the *Gandhavāda* points to a period of composition between A.D. 1330 and 1550. R.T. Vyas, the editor of the text, expressed as his view that it would be more appropriate if the date were fixed between A.D. 1250 and 1300. 568 The profuse employment of substances, introduced in the Indian materia medica by the Muslims, proves that the work cannot be assigned to a period earlier than 1300. It may even date from a much later time, since the materia medica differs considerably from that employed by Gaṅgādhara in his *Gandhasāra*.