´Debate´ in the Context of the History of Indian Medicine

Research project P 14451 "Debate" in the Context of the History of Indian Medicine Karin PREISENDANZ 08.05.2000 Aim of the project are the critical edition and annotated translation of the eighth chapter of the Vimanasthana of the Carakasamhita, one of the most important and oldest treatises of the classical Indian medical tradition (Ayurveda). All available manuscripts and editions as well as the preserved commentaries will be taken into account. On the one hand, the project is intended to provide a philologically sound basis for-the better understanding of the tradition of debate in the early period of Indian philosophy. On the other hand, light should be shed on aspects of Indian medical didactics as well as the history of medical science and its sociology, and the transmission and intellectual reception of the Carakasamhita in the late colonial period. As a result of the project, reliable access to the original source material, especially of an important passage regarding the early forms of debate (sambhasavidhi) in the Carakasamhita, will be offered for the first time to the scholar of South Asia. Moreover, the indologically untrained historian of science and philosophy will be enabled to gain first-hand insight into this valuable testimony of the history of Indian medicine and dialectics. The aim of the project will be realised by way of the following partial results: 1. Critical edition of Carakasamhita, Vimanasthana 8, including the stemmatological. and palaeographic examination of the manuscripts. 2. Working-edition of the Ayurvedadipika (about 1100 A.D.), the oldest preserved commentary to the Carakasamhita, possibly also of other, not yet identified commentaries, on the sambhasavidhi. 3. Annotated translation of Vimanasthana 8 on the basis of the critical edition and under consideration of the commentaries. 4. Compositional analysis of Vimanasthana 8 from the point of view of structure and style. 5. Historical study of the sambhasavidhi in the Carakasamhita accompanied by a comparative analysis of Nyayasutra 1 and 5.2 together with the Nyayabhasya. 6. Reconstruction and evaluation of the history of publication of the Carakasamhita aiming at a contribution to research on the history of the transmission and intellectual reception of the Carakasamhita in the late colonial period. a in the late colonial period.

The focus of the project on the theory of debate in the context of Indian medical history was the intellectual- historical study of the early theory of debate in India as it is found in the oldest preserved medical compendium of India, the Carakasamhita (ca. first to second century). In India, reflections on the method of debate, especially on the adequate proof of a thesis, on its structure and components in the widest sense, and on its rules are closely connected with the development of philosophical dialectics and logic; furthermore, the consideration of the knowledge sources which may be used in the context of debate provides a link to the development of epistemology. The extensive exposition on debate in the third chapter of the Carakasamhita, combined with expositions in other early sources, constitutes a valuable testimony towards the detailed historical study of these relationships. Until now the bulky Sanskrit text of the Carakasamhita, even though published in many editions, was only available in an uncritical edition, and there were good reasons to suspect that the editors had tampered with the original text. Thus, up to date eighty-five manuscripts of the Carakasamhita whose originals are preserved in various collections in India and Europe - among them many complete ones, but also some that contain other chapters of the work which are of relevance for the study of the history of Indian philosophy - were made available in various form in the context of the project; research conducted in India resulted also in the acquisition of copies of manuscripts that were hitherto completely unknown. The thirty-four manuscripts of this unique collection which are directly relevant to the project are written in a variety of Indian scripts; to do justice to their importance they were described in detail, with the additional aim to make a contribution towards the knowledge of scribal traditions in India over the last three hundred years. At the same time, the variant readings of the manuscripts were collected for the relevant text portion. On this basis, a hypothesis about the historical relationship between the manuscripts could be worked out that points towards a twofold transmission of the text. These two broad lines of transmission are also reflected in the complicated history of the publication of the Carakasamhita which could be clarified for the first time in the context of the project. The collection of the variant readings, which corroborated the suspicion of textual manipulation by the editors, made it possible to make first steps towards the establishment of a new critical and reliable text. Also, individual studies on dialectical and logical topics, such as the role of objections voiced by the opponent in debate for the determination of the logical connection between the proof and what is to be proofed, as well as the role of the example, could be conducted in comparison with other early sources.