Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery
Zysk, Kenneth G.
Price :
US$ 14.88
PRODUCT DETAILS
Book ID : 11445
ISBN-10 : 81-208-1507-6 / 8120815076
ISBN-13 : 978-81-208-1507-0 / 9788120815070
Place
of Publication :
Delhi
Year
of Publication :
1998
Edition : (Reprint)
Langauage : English
x, 210p., App., Index, 22 cm. (Indian Medical Tradition Series Vol. II)
CONTENTS
CONTENTS: Introduction, 1. The Evolution of Classical Indian Medicine; 1. The Beginnings of Indian Medicine; 2. Heterodox Asceticism and the Rise of Empiroco-rational Medicine 3. Medicine and Buddhist Monasticism, 4. Indian Medicine in Buddhism Beyond India 2. The Content of Early Buddhist Monastic Medicine 5. Materia Medica, 6. Stories of Treatments Based on Cases of Diseases; Conclusion;
DESCRIPTION
The rich Indian medical tradition is usually traced back to Sanskrit sources, the earliest of which cannot much antedate the common era. In this book Kenneth Zysk shows that Buddhist scriptures some centuries older than this contain abundant information about medical practice, and are our earliest evidence for a rational approach to medicine in India. He argues that Buddhism and the medical tradition were mutually supportive: that Buddhist monks and people associated with them contributed to the development of medicine, while their skills as physical as well as spiritual healers enhanced their reputation and popular support. Drawing on a wide range of textual, archaeological, and secondary sources, Zysk first presents an overview of the history of Indian Medicine in its religious context. He then examines primary literature from the Pali Buddhist Canon and from the Sanskrit treatises of Bhela, Caraka, and susruta. By close comparison of these two bodies of literature Zysk convincingly shows how the theories delineated in the medical classics actually became practice.
