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Chap. II.]
HINDOO MEDICINE.
35

ruta, Agnivesha, Bhela, and others who had gone before him. He also wrote another work called "Ashtanga-Sangraha," on which Pandit Aruna- datta wrote a commentary. Vagbhata's style is very clear and concise, and throws much light on several obscure passages in his predecessors' works. A popular couplet describes Vagbhata, Sushruta, and Atreya as the three great medical authorities for the three Yugas — Kali, Dvapara, and Krita respectively. Among the students of Hindoo Medicine the three writers are known by the name of "Vridha Trayi," or the "Old Triad."

Coming nearer to our period we meet with the name of Madhava or Madhavacharya, who wrote several works embracing almost all branches of Hindoo learning. He was born in Kishkindha, now called Golkonda, in Southern India, and was Prime Minister to Raja Vira Bukka of Vijayanagar, in the 1 2th century. He was a brother of Sayana, the author of the great Commentary on the Rig Veda, to which work Madhava is said to have contributed. Besides the "Sarva-darshana-sangraha," or dissertation on the six schools of Hindoo philosophy, and the scholia on the four Vedas, styled "Madhava Vedartha Prakasha," the "Panchadashi" (on Vedantic philosophy), "Mad-