A History of Indian Medical Literature v4.c57.59

v4.c57.59

136 The puzzling number of thirty-six (reading practically certain according to Hoernle) kuṣṭhas is mentioned, although their number is always eighteen in āyurvedic literature. Hoernle tended to identify them with the kṣudrarogas, which are thirty-six in number in Vāgbhaṭa's works (A.H.U.31.33; A.s.U.36.34); this rather improbable solution (the number of the kṣudrarogas varies considerably in āyurvedic treatises) was rejected by J. Jolly (1899: 380; 1913: 367), who proposed to solve the puzzle by assuming that the eighteen kuṣṭhas and eighteen śūkadoṣas were meant; Hoernle was not averse to Jolly's solution in his revised translation. The Bower MS appears to refer to eighteen kuṣṭhas in some mutilated verses of part III (12–13), as rightly pointed out by Jolly (1913: 367).