A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c46.1450

v3.c46.1450

VIYARUVISAŪTPATTIYA, i.e., ‘the origin of the poison of madness’, composed in Sinhalese prose and verse, copiously interspersed with Sanskrit stanzas. This treatise opens with the story of Suśruta’s asking his teacher Dhanvantari about the origin of madness; it mentions a bhikkhu Sumana, who suffered from hydrophobia. Dhanvantari’s explanation forms the main portion of the work. Subjects also dealt with are: the creation of the world; the rise of the Ikṣvāku dynasty, and the cow-slaughter, permitted by the kings of this dynasty, as the cause of diseases; the origin of madness in animals; the effects of the bite of rabid animals. The colophon states that the system of medical treatments expounded in this work was practised by a brāhmaṇa called Śivagupta, who had come from Bengal and lived in Sri Lanka in the year A.D. 1697/98. 166