History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c15.134

c15.134

The Bower manuscript is possibly the oldest existing medical manuscript. It was discovered by the British Lieutenant, A. Bower, in 1890 in a Buddhist monument at Kutcha in the Chinese Turkestan. Palaeographic evidence indicates its origin in the second half of the fourth century A D The contents should, therefore, represent knowledge acquired some centuries earlier than is warranted by the palaeographic evidence about the date of the manuscript. It consists of a series of medical and pharmaceutical monographs (*kalpa*) and treatise (*tantra*) Many of the chapters may be regarded practically as revision of similar ones found in the Charaka But no reference to the Charaka is found anywhere in the Sanskrit text of the manuscript, though the Susruta is explicitly quoted. It thus helps us in determining the chronology of the Charaka and the Susruta.