Classical Sanskrit literature has been studied and analysed by
several scholars for the light it throws on contemporary cultural
conditions and the history of the different branches of thought
and learning in ancient India. Literature mirrors up life as a
whole and while the work of a great poet like Kalidasa isespe-
clally rich in such cultural material imbedded in it, that of bana
in prose is, in this respect, a veritable encyclopaedia. The
correlation of general literature with the technical texts of a
branch of knowledge is necessary in the study of that branch. I
have emphasised the value of this 'contextual' study elsewhere.
For scientific and technical branches, such a study of general
literature is more important than for other subjects. It is there-
fore a fruitful line of work that Dr. Priya Vrata Sharma has taken
up in the present work of his entitled 'Indian Medicine in the
Classical Age'.
Dr. Sharma, an Acarya in Ayurveda and Snhitya and also M.
A., is now Head of the Dravya-Guna Department of the Institute
of Medical Sciences and Ex-Director of the Post-Graduate Institute
of Indian Medicine in the Banaras Hindu University. He has
done special work on Ayurvedic texts particularly Nighantus bear-
ing on materia medica.
Although the present volume is not large in size, it makes a
detailed analysis of leading Sanskrit classics, prominently those of
Bana,and brings together all the data bearing on the place of
Ayurveda in the curriculum of studies, its branches, the practice of
medicine, economic and other conditions of medical men in court
and society, charitable dispensaries, basic concepts of Ayurveda,
the hnman system according to it, preventive medicine and
health, materia medica, and preparation of medicines. There are
two sections one on the Indian Medicine in general and other on the list of drugs mentioned in different texts, The Sanskrit passages
which are pressed into service are quoted in the footnotes to
help verification, I am sure, students studying Ayurveda on the one
hand and on the other, those interested in cultural history will
find the book useful and interesting.
- V. Raghavan