Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/76

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

lviii

Buddhistic India hospitals attached to the numerous monasteries for the treatment of man and beast alike.[1] It would also appear that inscriptions were engraved on rock pillars giving recipes for the treatment of diseases. Thus both Vrinda and Chakrapáni speak of a formula for a collyrium as inscribed on a stone pillar by Nágárjuna at Pátaliputra: नागार्ज्जुनेन लिखिता स्तम्भे पाटलिपुत्त्रके।

Probable date of Vrinda.Chakrapáni bases his work on that of Vrinda, who again follows closely the order and the pathology of the Nidána of Mádhavkara.[2] It necessarily follows that Vrinda was a recognised authority at least one or two centuries before the time of Chakrapáni and that the former was preceded by the Nidána by at least as many centuries and thus we have internal evidence of the exis-
  1. "Everywhere the King Piyadasi, beloved of the Gods, has provided medicines of two sorts, medicines for men and meidicines for animals." Edict II. of Asoka.
  2. Vrinda himself admits this:
    वृन्देन * * * संलिख्यते गदविनिश्चयजक्रमेण॥