The first printed edition of The Compendium of Suśruta was produced in 1835–1836 by the eminent Bengali educator Madhusudana Gupta (Gupta (ed.), 1835; Wujastyk, 2006). Since then, there have been at least 43 printed editions of the work (Meulenbeld, 1999, vols. IB 311-314). These editions generally copy one another and are altogether based on fewer than twenty manuscripts, almost all from the nineteenth century. More seriously for historical scholarship, these are what are called “Pandit editions,” produced by learned traditional scholars who emended the text freely in order to make smooth reading, and who referred to manuscripts to select alternative readings eclectically without awareness of the powerful methods of textual criticism developed in Europe since the nineteenth century. These early editions embody very significant scholarly contributions, but there are questions that a contemporary reader wishes to answer that these editions do not address.
This project will study these printed editions and place them - to the extent possible - in relationship to each other and to the manuscripts on which they were based. A model for this type of study is provided by Maas (Maas, 2006, chap. 2).
References
2006
Wellcome MS Indic \delta27: The Wellcome Suśruta Manuscript of Madhusūdana Gupta, Nineenth-century Medical Communicator, Editor, and Surgeon
@unpublished{wuja-2006,
author = {Wujastyk, Dominik},
note = {Invited contribution},
title = {Wellcome MS Indic $\delta27$: The Wellcome Suśruta Manuscript of Madhusūdana Gupta, Nineenth-century Medical Communicator, Editor, and Surgeon},
year = {2006},
address = {Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL},
publisher = {Academia.edu},
url = {https://www.academia.edu/40301043},
urldate = {2019-09-09}
}
Samādhipāda: das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert = the First Chapter of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra for the First Time Critically Edited
@book{maas-2006,
author = {Maas, Philipp André},
publisher = {Shaker Verlag},
title = {Samādhipāda: das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra
zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert = the First Chapter of the
Pātañjalayogaśāstra for the First Time Critically Edited},
year = {2006},
address = {Aachen},
isbn = {3832249877},
adddress = {Aachen},
url = {https://www.academia.edu/210280/},
langid = {german}
}
@book{meul-hist,
author = {Meulenbeld, Gerrit Jan},
publisher = {E. Forsten},
title = {A History of {Indian} Medical Literature},
year = {1999},
address = {Groningen},
isbn = {9069801248},
annote = {ark:/13960/t4qk6558q},
volumes = {5}
}
1835
Āyur-veda-prakāśa (Also Called Suśruta-saṃhitā) by Suśruta. The Suśruta, or System of Medicine, Taught by Dhanwantari, and Composed by His Disciple Suśruta
@book{gupt-1835,
author = {{Gupta (ed.)}, Sri Madhusudana},
publisher = {Education Press and Baptist Mission Press},
title = {Āyur-veda-prakāśa (Also Called Suśruta-saṃhitā) by Suśruta. The Suśruta, or System of Medicine, Taught by Dhanwantari, and Composed by His Disciple Suśruta},
year = {1835},
address = {Calcutta},
url = {http://n2t.net/ark:/13960/t6841qw6x},
volumes = {2}
}
