Bhesajja Manjusa- Devanagari Edition

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About the Book The Bhesajjamanjasa, composed in Sri Lanka in the thirteenth century is the only known medical work available in Pali. It has drawn from about eighty medical treatises, some of which are Astangahrdaya, Astangasamgraha, Susrutasamhita, Carakasamhita, Siddhasara, Madhavanidana. It contains materials for study of bio-medical ethics, ethno-medicine, ethno-botany, medical anthropology, Pali lexicography and history of traditional medicine in South Asia. It is significant because it is the only treatise of medical terms, revealing deeper understanding of the Indo-Sri Lankan relations regarding medical science. In a comparison of the terminology of Sanskrit and Singhalese medical texts, the main treatise of Päli medicine has the medical terms as generally identical. The present edition makes the Päli text available in Devanagari script for the first time based on an edition of the Roman script, published from Pali Text Society, Oxford. The six Indexes, i.e. samanya suci, of the vanaspati or medical herbs and trees, pasu suci, of the diseases, of the materia medica, of the alphabetical arrangement of words, the Index of the first lines of the gatha-s or verses are appended at the end of the present edition.

About the Author Bimalendra Kumar started his academic career as a Lecturer in the Department of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan (W.B.). At present, he is Professor of Pali, Department of Pali & Buddhist Studies, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.). His publications include over eighty articles in scholarly journals published from India and abroad. He has edited and authored nine books namely, Theory of Relations in Buddhist Philosophy (1998). Gandhavamsa: A History of Pali Literature (1992), Perspectives of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (2005), Patthanuddesadipani (2005), Dahtuvamso (2006), Dhammadesana: A Buddhist Perspective (Prof. Mahesh Tiwari Commemoration Volume) (2007) (jointly edited), Buddhism and Social Ideals (2009) (jointly edited) and Meghaduta: Critical Edition with Sanskrit and Tibetan Index (2011) (jointly He is the editor of Dharmadoot Journal (Sarnath) and Co-editor of Mahabodhi Journal (Kolkata), published by Maha-Bodhi Society of India.

Foreword It is a genuine pleasure for me to introduce this maiden Devanagari edition prepared by Professor Dr. Bimalendra Kumar of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, of the Bhesajjamañjūsă (Skt. Bheṣajyamanjusa), till now available the only medical treatise composed in Päli verses during the 13th Century A.C. in Sri Lanka, the Land of Theravada Buddhism.

In the entire Päli Literature the Bhesajjamanjusa occupies an unique position as a glaring illustration of 'Applied Buddhism' since it contains some medical instructions of an anonymous Sinhalese Buddhist monk author. Such instructions are primarily based on Gotama (Skt. Gautama) Buddha's exhortations to His monk disciples to maintain their good and diseaseless health for spiritual advancement (Vinaya-Mahavagga: Bhesajja kkhandha).

Introduction The Bhesajjamanjusa (hereafter Bhes), composed in Sri Lanka in the thirteenth Century is the only known medical treatise written in Pali. It was transmitted in South- East Asia. It was among the texts donated to a temple library at Pagan (see Pagan Inscription Text No. 262) in Burma in 1442 (UPADHYAYA 1963: 688) and is found in Khom-script manuscripts in Siam. An inscription of A.D. 1442 in Burma also proves that this Bhes was available in Burma. It mentions it in a list of books offered to the Sangha along with other things (Bode 1909: 108). This is quite understandable in view of the religious contacts that existed between Sri Lanka and Burma from the 13th to the 18th centuries. A Burmese edition of the book is published in Rangoon in 1899. A copy of book written in Burmese script is available in the Cambridge University Library, bearing the Shelf mark Add MS 1252, (21). It is not inked and so is very difficult to read. But some of the folios which are legible reveal that its text is essentially the same as that of its Sinhalese manuscripts. A large number of the manuscript of this book available in Sri Lanka indicates that it was widely used in the country. Bhes chapter I-18 had been edited by Jinadasa LIYANARATNE and published by PTS, London in 1996.

**Contents and Sample Pages**