VAGBHATAS

ASTNGA HRDAYASAM HIT

Preface
After Heinrich Latjeers Beitrge zur Kenntnis
der Tibetischen Medizin (Berlin, 1900) had been
for decades the only comprehensive if
preliminary work on the topic, the study of
Lamaist healing-art has received of late a new
and unexpected impulse from three
publications, each of which is meritorious in its
own individual way: Cyrill von Korven-Krasinskis
strictly scientific Tibetische Medizinphilosophie
(Zurich, 1953), Theodor Burangs mainly
popular Tibetische Heilkunde (Zurich, 1957),
and Ilza Veiths richly illustrated Medizin in Tibet
(Leverkusen, 1960).

 What is still a desideratumthough it should properly be

the starting-point of any such researchis a complete
edition and translation of the rOyud bzi, the standard book
of Tibetan medicine, which is supposed to have been
adapted from a now lost Sanskrit original by the Kashmirian
physician Candranandana about the middle of the 8th
century A.D., and which is said to have been written by
none other than Kumrajvaka, the famed contemporary of
Buddha Skyamuni1. The indispensable condition, however,
of a correct understanding of the rOyud bzi is an intimate
knowledge of Tibetan medical terminology, which in its turn
can be acquired only by closely comparing an extant
medical Sanskrit text of some length with its Tibetan
counterpart. No work seems better suited for this purpose
than Vgbhatas Astngahrdayasamhit, the only
representative description of Indian medicine incorporated
into the Lamaist canon.

 The plan to bring out a critical edition of the Tibetan

Astngahrdayasamhit, a specimen of whichalong with
the original Sanskrit, a literal translation, and a running
commentary on the translating- techniqueis now placed
before the learned public, was conceived in the winter of
195859, during a prolonged stay at the International
Academy of Indian Culture in New Delhi, where the present
writer made a complete transcript of the text from the
Peking xylograph : a tedious job that was, however, well
paid in the end since the Japanese photomechanical reprint,
like the Narthang xylograph, turned out to be difficult to
read in many places. It is intended to publish all 120
chapters in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and English and to prepare a
trilingual glossary of the medical terminology that may
serve, as it were, for a master-key to the locked treasures
of Lamaist healing-art.

 1 This is not to answer beforehand the question of its true

provenance and authorship, on which now see Unkrig in
Korvin-Krasinskis MedizinpMbsopUe p. xviii sq.Vili Preface

In concluding, the author wishes to express his sense of

obligation to Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Rai; for the indefatigable
support given at all stages of this work: to Dr. Wolfgang
Voigt of the State Library, Marburg, and the staff of the
India Office Library, London, for the prompt services
rendered in the procurement of urgently needed books;
and, last but not least, to Mr. William Fielding Hatton for a
stylistic cheek-up on the Introduction.
Marburg, June 25, 1963 Claus Vogel