Mathematics and Medicine in Sanskrit.

• Author: Plofker, Kim
• Position: Book review

Mathematics and Medicine in Sanskrit. Edited by DOMINIK WUJASTYK. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference, vol. 7. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 2009. pp. viii 208. rs. 600.

This volume contains versions of slightly more than half the papers presented at the panel on "Scientific Literature" at the 12th World Sanskrit Conference held in Helsinki in 2003. The published papers discuss aspects of two Sanskrit scientific disciplines (or Iiistras) in particular: section I is devoted to the of lastra of gapita (mathematical sciences) and section II to avurveda (medicine/healthcare). An editor's introduction and another general essay on the study of science in Sanskrit are also included. The consistent formatting of citations, bibliographies, and transliterations throughout the volume is a help to the reader, although the typographical accuracy fluctuates somewhat from one chapter to another.

Three common themes, two of which are highlighted in the editor's introduction, underlie these diverse articles: (1) the importance of investigating the vast and little-known corpus of Sanskrit technical manuscripts; (2) the need to combine Sanskrit and other Indological skills and methodologies with those of other disciplines as diverse as mathematics and statistics, anthropology, and botany; and (3) the recognition of chronological evolution in traditional Sanskrit disciplines that are too often regarded as timelessly canonical and consistent bodies of knowledge. The late K. V. Sarma's general essay "Science and Sanskrit" also stresses these themes in its perceptive survey of current work on Sanskrit technical literature, although it is perhaps a little unrealistic in emphasizing the direct contributions that ancient and medieval Indian sciences might make to the advancement of modern science. In keeping with their interdisciplinary approach, much of the content of the articles will he valuable for historians of mathematics, medicine, and science in general, although some of their details (including extended excerpts from original source texts) will be inaccessible to non-Sanskritists.

In section I, A. K. Bag summarizes the development of solution procedures for second-degree indeterminate equations in seventh-through twelfth-century Indian mathematics, with a useful analysis of the methods in terms of their later rediscovery and modern equivalents. The second article, by Jean-Michel Delire, analyzes evidence from manuscripts of second-millennium (c.E.)...