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Humours and their Legacy in Early Buddhist Medicine: Revisiting the Indo-European Foundation of Medical Conceptions in the Pāli Canon

Federico Divino
In this paper, I analyze the Buddhist humoral theory primarily presented in the suttas of the Pāli Canon through a comparative study with other medical theories developed within the Indo-European tradition, specifically Hippocratic and Āyurvedic medicine. The aim is to trace possible historical developments of a humoral conception that originates from an Indo-European duality between fire and water, with these elements serving as the original core of humoral theory. The text therefore offers a detailed examination of the mechanisms of the three humours in the medical theory as articulated in the Pāli Canon, and draws parallels with Āyurveda and, where possible, with Greek medicine. In Hippocratic medicine, the fundamental elements πῦρ and ὕδωρ are possibly recognized as remnants of an ancient Indo-European binary concept, a concept also preserved in Āyurvedic theory through the universal principles of Agni and Soma, which classify the properties of foods and characteristics of diseases. Can we find similar traces of such a classification in Buddhist humours? By exploring this question, we aim to outline in greater depth the role of humors in the Pāli suttas, enriching our understanding of the archaic medical theory that these suttas bear witness to.

Tithinirṇaya: A Calendrical Text of the Mādhva Tradition for Religious Observations

Nagakiran Yelluru, G. Sreeram, Venketeswara R. Pai and Aditya Kolachana
Tithinirṇaya is a celebrated astronomical text of the Mādhva tradition, intended primarily to assist in computing the appropriate days for observing a religious fast. For this purpose, it prescribes a procedure to obtain the tithi at sunrise for an observer located at latitude (φ) near 12.780. This work supplies a translation of the text along with mathematical and geometric rationales for the astronomical algorithms presented therein, which are either inadequate or missing in prior publications. The work also investigates the disputed authorship of the text and briefly remarks upon its religious applications.

Epistemology and Scientific Methodology in Āyurveda: The Means of Valid Knowledge According to the Rasavaiśeṣikasūtra and its Commentary by Narasiṃha

Christophe Vielle
This paper examines the means of valid knowledge (Sanskrit pramāṇas) according to Bhadanta Nāgārjuna’s Rasavaiśeṣikasūtra (4,70), an ancient Āyurvedic work (fourth-fifth centuries CE?), and its commentary by Narasiṃha (seventh-eighth centuries CE?). This theoretical treatise of medical philosophy on “the specifics of taste(s)” is, together with its bhāṣya, preserved in a single old palm-leaf manuscript from Kerala, an edition of which was published in print for the first time in Trivandrum in 1928. Both the sūtra-author and the commentator appear to have been Buddhist physicians. Following the sūtra, the pramāṇas are six, viz. perception (pratyakṣa), inference (anumāna), comparison (upamāna), tradition (āgama), implication (arthāpatti) and inclusion (saṃbhava). These are the same as in the Mīmāṃsā tradition except for the sixth. Quoted and parallel passages for this portion of Narasiṃha’s commentary are found in the works of the Buddhist logician Dignāga and in Candrakīrti’s Prasannapadā (commenting Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikās), as well as in the Carakasaṃhitā, the Nyāyabhāṣya, the Yuktidīpikā and other early commentaries to the Sāṃkhyakārikās 4-5, and in Vyāsa’s bhāṣya to the Yogasūtras (or Pātañjalayogaśāstra) 1,7. The examples provided for each pramāṇa are connected to medicine. Even if the same examples are commonly found in other epistemological, non-medical, sources, this feature is noteworthy and can be viewed as an indication of the milieu in which the pramāṇa theory originated or, at least, was used in a practical way. The interest of the commentary to RVS 4,70 and 3,44-45 also lies in its scientific approach to medical diagnostics and treatment, stressing observation and logical reasoning, and explaining, as in Carakasaṃhitā 3,4.5 (cf. 8.83), that traditional doctrine, which comes first as a means of knowledge, is itself ultimately based on perception and inference, what in modern times could be termed “empiricism”.

Fauna Names in the Ḍākārṇava

Iain Sinclair
The Ḍākārṇava, a Buddhist tantra extant since the eleventh century, includes 108 fauna goddesses in its principal maṇḍala. Many of the associated fauna species have not been identified before. This study investigates these zoonyms in light of the tantra’s natural and linguistic environment, located in the medieval coastal northeast of the Indian subcontinent. Drawing on Sanskrit medical and lexical literature, as well as regional zoological data, new identifications are proposed for species including the red-vented bulbul, muntjac deer, dhole, Asian water monitor, and windowpane oyster. Additional names are conjectured to designate the clouded leopard, pangolin, silond catfish, and others. The article includes a revised edition and annotated translation of Ḍākārṇava 15.125cd–129, 135–138, and 167–170ab, along with a concordance of fauna names from directly related tantric texts: the Kulikātattvanirṇaya, Laghutantraṭīkā and Kālacakratantra.

Early Indian Palmistry: Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna: Pāṇilekhā

Kenneth G. Zysk
This paper offers a critical edition, translation, and notes to the chapter titled Pāṇilekhā or "the lines on the hands", from the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna. It represents an early Indian formulation of palmistry that entered the texts in the latter half of the ninth century CE. It presents thirty-four verses in varying metres, suggesting compilation from diverse origins and dealing with omens and prognostication. Notably, it incorporates astrological elements, a feature not common in other early palmistry collections until much later. The paper includes critical remarks on the Sanskrit used and discusses different manuscript versions, aiming for an accurate representation of the original. Innovative is the use of more recent hand drawings in the understand of ancient text. Appendices provide translations of later palmistry texts like the Hastasañjīvana and Samudrikatilaka, along with historical illustrations of hand diagrams.

Natasha Sarkar, The Last Great Plague of Colonial India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024)

Saurav Kumar Rai