Mathematics and Medicine in Sanskrit

The chapters in this volume were originally presented in the panels on Scientific Literature at the 12th World Sanskrit Conference in Helsinki, Finland. They represent some of the most up-to-date scholarship on the history of early science in India being done today. The first part of the book focusses on the history of mathematical commentaries and the role of illustration in sanskrit mathematical manuscripts. The second part of the book investigates fundamental ayurvedic theories, ayurvedic rites for childbirth, the cultural history of medicine in the Early Modern period, the anthropology of spirit of one of the oldest surviving ayurvedic texts.

This book will be of interest to historians of science, students of classical Indian history and culture, and anyone wanting to know where the cutting edge of the history of early Indian science is today.

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About the Author(s)

Dominik Wujastyk was educated in the exact sciences (physics, London Univ.) and in Asian Studies (Sanskrit and Pali, Oxford Univ. college, London where he holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship. He has recently been researching the history of Ayurveda in the Early Modern period from 1550-1750. His publications include Metarules of Paninian Grammar, A Handlist of the Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts in the Wellcome Library, The Roots of Ayurveda, Studies in Indian Medicine History, Contagion in Pre-Modern Societies. He is on the editorial board of the journals Asian medicine: Tradition and Modernity, The Indian Journal of History of Science, and International Journal of Hindu studies, and is and co-founder and co-editor of two book series, Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series (Brill), and Indian Medical Tradition Series (Motilal Banarsidass).