MATERIA INDICA; OK, SOME ACCOUNT OP THOSE ARTICLES WHICH ARE EMPLOYED BY THE HINDOOS, AND OTHER EASTERN NATIONS, IN THEIR MEDICINE, ARTS, AND AGRICULTURE; COMrSUlNO ALSO FORMULiE, WITH PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS, NAMES OF DISEASES IN VARIOUS EASTERN LANGUAGES, AMD A COPIOUS LIST OP ORIENTAL BOOKS IMMEBIATELT CONNECTED WITH GENERAL SCIENCE, Ac. Sec. By WHITELAW AINSLIE, M.D. M.R.A.S. LATB or TUB MEDICAL BTArr OF SODTHBBN INDIA. VOL. II. LONDON: niHTiD rom LONGMAN, EBES, OBME, BROWN, AND GREEN, FATBSNOSTBB-BOW. 1826. To A minute inteitigatioii of the pecaliir virtues of certain plants and herbs» the Indians of old were naturally incited by the rast variety and beauty of the innumerable vegetable productions which cover the face of their fertile territory: these in some places grow up spontaneously; many applied to sacred purposes, the ministers of religion reverently cherished; and many the hand of traffic di­ ligently cultivated for ezportatioiL*' IxnuH A»TiQymx8y voL vii. p. 624. Loudon: Printed by A. & R. %K>ttiswoode> New-Street> Square. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. P«00 PAELlMfNARY OBSERVATION! . . . . . . t Names in some of the Oriental Languages of the descrip, tion of Plants, and the parts of Plants, that are used in medicine in India . . . . . . xxxvii CHAP. I. Medicines in use amongst the Hindoos, and other Eastern n a tio n s ........................................- . - - 1 CHAP. IL Books in various Eastern languages connected with Medicine and other sciences 491 A Uat of Sanscrit Medical and other Books, verbatim as it was given to me by a celebrated Hindoo physician of Southern India, and written by a learned native of the name of Ramaswlmy Naig . . . . . . 491 A List of Tamool Medical and Scientific Books . . . 499 A List of Persian and Arabic Medical and Scientific Books; the names of some of which were taken from Stewart’s de­ scriptive Catalogue of Tippoo Sultan’s Library - . 504 A furtherXist of Tamool Books, procured for me by a learned Vy tian of Southern India - - - - - - 520 List of Medical Works in the hands of the native practitioners of Ceylon; they are mostly in Sanscrit, which in that island is written in the Cyngalese character; many of them, how. ever, are translated into Cyngalese. The list was procured for me by the late much-lamented W. Tolfrey, Esq. of Ceylon - 525 CHAP. in. Names of Diseaaes m various Eastern languages - - 598 Addenda - ...........................................................54S A 2 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. I t is much to be lamented that it was ever found necessary to include the sciences, and arts^ amongst those subjects which are treated of in the sacred writings of the Hindoos; a circumstance which has been hitherto an insurmountable obstacle to improve, ment; and is, no doubt, one of the causes why me. dicine in India is still sunk in a state of empirical darkness. ** The Ayur Veda, as the medical writings of the highest antiquity are called, is considered to be a portion of the fourtli or Aihania Veda, and is con. sequently the work of Brahma *, who composed the four immortal Vedas; this Ayur Veda was com­ municated by Brahma to Dacsha the priyapati, and by him the two Amins, or sons of Surya (the sun) were instructed in it; :md they then became the medical attendants of the Gods: a genealogy which cannot fail recalling to our remembrance the two sons of Esculapius, and their descent from Apollo.” The Aswins, it is believed by some, first made Jndra acquainted with the medical science contained in the * See an interesting account of the medical and suwcal sciences of the Hindoos, in the Oriental Magaxine for March 182S. A Si VI PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Ayver Veda, and that he was the precepter of Dhaiu ivantrie ; others are of opinion that Atreya, Bharad- viqja, and Charaka were instructed in the mysteries of the healing art prior to Dhawwantrie ; be that as it may, Charaka*s work is still extant, and goes by his name. DhamJoMrie is sometimes called Kasi- rtga (Prince of Kasi or Benares) ; his disciple was Susruta, son of Viswamitra, a contemporary of Rama ; his work (Susmta's) still exists ; it is supposed to be fA great antiquity, perhaps the oldest, with the ex­ ception of that of Charaka *, which the Hindoos yet possess. The Ajfur Veda itself is said to have originally contisted of one hundred sections of a thousand stanzas each ; it was adapted to the limited faculties of man, and was divided into eight parts, com­ prising the whole of the ars medendi amongst the Hindoos j according to the valuable account above mentioned, they were the following :— I. Salya, which instructed in the art of extract­ ing extraneous substances that chance or mischief may have forced into the human frame. II. Salakya. This treated of external organic af­ fections, such as diseases of the eyes, ears, &c. III. Kaya CMkitsa. This treated of the application of the healing art to the body in general. IV. Bhatavidya. This treated of the restoration of the faculties from a deranged state, induced by demoniacal possession. V. Kavmarahhrilya. The subject of this was the care of infancy; it also embraced the treatment of puerperal disorders in mothers and nurses. • This some imagine to have been inspired by Seeoa; other Sanscrit medical works ot* great celebrity, but of more modem date are the Roganirupana and Nidana. (As. Res. vol. i. p. S50.V niSLIMItf AST OBSSRVATUnraw vii VI. Agada, This taught the best mode of ad. ministering antidotes. VII. Rasayana. 'Phis treated of chemistry, or more properly speaking, alchemy. VIII. Reyikarcma. This taught how the increase of the human race could best be promoted. Sir W illiam Jones informs us, that the Ayur Veda has been almost entirely lost in the lapse of ages * j but that he had met with a curious fragment of it; in which he was surprized to find an account of the internal structure of the human frame. What> ever may have been done, however, in this way, in former times, it is to be regretted that the custom of (frssecting and examining the dead subject, does not now exist amongst the Hindoos; indeed it is, I believe, contrary to the Brahminical tenets of the present day: so that all the knowledge they have of the anatomy of man, can be little else than conjecture, formed from what they may have seen in looking into the bodies of brute animals.t With regard to the surgical knowledge the ancient Hindoos possessed, however neglected that branch of medicine may now be in India, it will I think be allowed, from what has been advanced respecting * In the hermetic writings, or bible of £gypt, the Zend-Avetta of Iran, the Veda* and Upaveda* of Hindoostan, Mr. Miller in* forms os, are discovered^ respectively, complete sections on the subject of medicine; and which must be considered as incom- wably the most ancient monuments of that science. See Miller s DUquuition on the History of Medicine, part i. p. 24-9. f The present Rajah of Tapjore is a most enlightened and learned prince, and particularly distinguished by his attachment to scientific research; anxious to make himself acquainted with the structure of the human body, but too rigid a Hindoo to satisfy his curiosity at the expence of his religious opinions, he ordered a complete skeleton made of ivory to be sent to him from JSngland. The Rajah is, besides, a tolerable chemist; and, what is better, a very worthy and amiable man. A 4 via PRELIMfNAIlY OBSERVATIONS. the two first subdivisions of the Ayur Veda, vi^. Salya and Salakya, that those must have treated of surgery, strictly so called ; and it has as clearly been ascertained, that in the first portion of a comment­ ary • on Susruta’s work, already noticed, many va­ luable surgical definitions are distinctly detailed : this portion is entitled Sutra St*hana or chirurgical de­ finitions. The second portion of the commentary is the Nidana St’fuma, or section on symptoms or dia­ gnosis. The third is the Sarira St'hana, the subject of which is anatomy. The fourth, Chikitsa St’hana, treats of the internal use of medicines. The fifth, Kalpa St’hana, gives a copious list of antidotes. The sixth and last is the Uttara ; it is a supplemen­ tary section on various local diseases or affections of the eye, ear, &c. In all those portions, however, it would appear from the testimony last quoted, that surgery, and not general medicine, is the principal object of the commentary. The instrumental part of surgery, was, according to the best airthority, of eight kinds, chedhana, cut­ ting, or excision ; lekhana, which signifies drawing lines, appears to be applicable to scarification and in­ oculation ; vyadhana, puncturing; eshyam, probing, or sounding; aharya, extraction of solid bodies j visravana, extraction t of fluids ; sex'ana, or sewing, and bhedana, division, or excision. Ubhatta, * This commentary was made by a Caslimirian, and Astatic Journal may be as old as the twelfth century. See for September 1823, p.242. t Under this head, extracting of fluids, arc included the use of (jalauka) leeches and bleeding or venesection. On the subject of leeches some of the surgical sastrums of Upper India treat fully. Twelve species of leech are therein enumerated, six of which arc said to be poisonous; and their names in Sanscrit are karbura, alagarda, tndrayudha, samudrika, gobondana. the and the the kapila, The six that are fit for use are or tawny leech; the PBELnONART OBSERVATIONS* iz The mechanical means employed in Hindoo sur­ gery seem to have been numerous; these were ge­ nerally termed yantras, including a great variety of instruments (sastras), and having distinct names, cor­ responding with the purposes for which they were intended; such as tongs (sandansa$)f needles (sucht), teeth instruments (danta sanku)y saws (Jcarapatra\ tabular instruments (nan), lancets (mandalagra)^ knives {ardhadaras), histories (kucharica) } of ban­ dages according to Ubiiatta, or Baghbatta^ there were no less than fourteen kinds; of rods and sounds, and instruments for eradicating nasal polypi (nakra) so common and troublesome in India, there were also a great variety; then again in their surgical phar­ macy they ^pear to have had, frequently, recourse to kshara, which signifies alkaline salts, or solutions, as are directed in the aaranghadra. The actual cau- teiy, with heated metals (agni) is veiy commonly employed by the Hindoos of the present age, who also not unfrequently use a cautery prepared with hot seeds, combustible substances, or inflamed boiling fluids of a gelatinous or mucous consistence ; but as has been said in speaking of anatomy^ whatever may have been done in former times, it may be justly ob­ served, that no <q)erations in surgery of any nicety, are now ventured on by the medical men of India; certainly, not by the Tamool or Tellingoo practition­ ers of the Southern provinces, where, however, dis­ located joints are replaced, and fractured limbs set fiueda, which has a red tinge; the tanka wwiAi, which is yellow, and has a long sharp head ; the muskika, which is dun; the pan- darika tmtUd, which has the hue of the mudga (phaseoius moong); and the tavarika, which resembles the leaf of the lotus in its colour. See Oriental Magasine for March 1823. X PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. with tolerable skill, by a class of men called in Tamool kayungkatugara atuvanien, who also apply leeches, &c. The Mahometan doctors. Hakeems oc­ casionally bleed, and couch • for the cataract, which last is done in a very clumsy and uncertain manner. We learn from Mr. Crawford’s excellent History qf the Eastern Archipelago (vol. i. p. 329.), that neither are the Malay doctors much in the habit of taking away blood ; like the Hindoos they have much faith in incantations, but never feel the pulse ; in this last respect differing essentially from the Indians, who distinguish no fewer than “ twenty kinds of pulse.” t The Vitians or Vydias (physicians) being sudras, are not permitted to peruse the sacred J medical writings (vedas), which are guarded with religious awe by the Shastree Brahmins; but they have free access to many professional tracts (sastras), which correspond with, and are, in fact, commentaries on them. These are said to have been composed by prophets and holy men of antiquity (Maharshies), to whom is generally given a divine origin, such as Aghastier, whose work has just been quoted. This is no place to enter minutely into the dis­ cussion, which has so long engaged the attention of mankind, regarding the claims of priority of Hin- doostan over other countries, with respect to the cul­ tivation of the human mind; nor have I sufficient of Eastern lore to enter with confidence on the siib- * Asiatic Researches, See vol. i. p. 408. (Calcutta edition.) Aghastier Vytia f See a medical sastrum by Aghastier, entitled Anyouroo. ^ Sir William Jones informs us, that there is a vast collection Charaka, of them from the which is considered as a work of Seeva, Roganirupana Nidana, to the and which are compara­ tively modern. PBELIHINABT OB8EBTATIOMS. XI ject; much has been said on either side, and we know that there are some very enlightened in- dividuals» who acknowledge, that they begin to lose fiuth in the assumption, that the Hindoos had made great progress in the arts and sciences, at a time when other nations were, if I may use the expres* sion, still in their cradle. Nay, these gentlemen further state, that they “ have now the strongest grounds to suspect, that in many cases the know­ ledge of the Indians was borrowed at second hand, finm the communication of their Persian and Arabic conquerors; who themselves had been instructed by the creative genius of the Greeks.” (See Edin­ burgh Review, for May 1811.) In opposition to this, Mr. M aurice observes, in his History qf Hmdoostari, (vol. i. p. 79.) “ the genius of the Hindoos was ever too proud to borrow either ceremonies of religion, or maxims of policy from their neighbours; the Egyptians, if they did not appropriate to themselves the ancient mytholo­ gical rites, and symbols, of India, have perhaps de­ rived both from one primitive source of Cuthite pro­ fanation;” and it may be further noticed, that I have not been able to hear of any translations that ever were made of medical writings from the Arabic into the Sanscrit; but there is existing evidence of the borrowing of the Arabians from the Hindoos, which the reader may convince himself of, by re­ ferring to the list of Arabic books, in the second volume of this work. Let us see what-the learned Mr. Bryant has said on this point, in his New System qf Ancient Mytho­ logy (vol. iv. pp. 256, 257.): “ From circumstances of this nature many learned men have contended, that