A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c9.s4.66

v1.c9.s4.66

That the Charaka should be changed by Arabic writers into “Sarak,” Susruta into “Susrud,” Nidána into “Badan,” Astánga into “Asankar” and so forth, need not at all surprise us. Such transformations can well be explained on phonetic principles. Moreover, one must remember that the Indian works translated into Arabic were sometimes derived from preëxisting Phelvi versions, and in the migrations through successive languages, the names often got frightfully disfigured. A notable instance of this kind is afforded by the fables of Pilpay (Kalila and Dimna ¹) from which La Fontaine borrowed the idea of several of his fables as he himself acknowledges: "I shall only say, from a sense of gratitude, that I owe the largest portion of them to Pilpay, the Indian sage." It has now been made out that Pilpay or Bidpai is a corrupt form of the Sanskrit word "vidyápati" (master of learning).