Abstract
Any discussion of the procedures to which Sanskrit medical texts are being submitted by their editors, commentators and translators, before the texts become readable and reliable, is likely to extend beyond the field of pure philology. A number of terminological problems encountered in the philological study of Ayurvedic texts are related to the logical frame of mind of the Asian doctor, or to the logical structure of the Asian medical discourse. Philologists cannot avoid encroaching on the domain of anthropologists and broaching the vast question of the relation between text and practice in Hindu society, in order to address important issues like, for example, that of polysemy in the names of diseases or drugs. The collation of manuscripts, the edition, annotation, and translation of the classic texts cannot be dissociated from other, complementary approaches and techniques used by ethnobotanists, sociolinguists, and others.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Carakasamhitā, edited and translated by Priyavrat Sharma, Varanasi: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1981 & 1983, 2 vols.
Fontanier, Pierre, Les Figures du Discours [1827], Paris, 1927.
Hoernle, A.F. Rudolf, Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology or the Bones of the Human Body, Oxford, 1907; reprint, New York: AMS, 1978.
Littré, Emile, Dictionnaire de la Langue Française, Paris: Hachette, 1863–1878,4 vols, and supplement.
Meulenbeld, G. Jan, editor, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Priorities in the Study of Indian Medicine, held at the State University of Groningen 23–27 October 1983, Groningen, 1984 [with the editor: Dr. Meulenbeld, De Zwaan 11, 9781 JK Bedum, The Netherlands].
Needham, Rodney, Against the Tranquility of Axioms, Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1983.
Oxford English Dictionary [O.E.D.], later recensions of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological Society, Oxford, 1888–1902, 5 vols.
Siddhāsara (The) of Ravigupta, Vol. I: The Sanskrit Text, edited by R.E. Emmerick, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980.
Vogel, Claus, Vāgbhata’ s Astāhgahrdayasamhitā, The First Five Chapters of its Tibetan Version…, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1965.
Young, Allan, “When rational men fall sick: An inquiry into some assumptions made by medical anthropologists,” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry V (1981): 317–335.
Zimmermann, Francis, The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats, Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1987.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zimmermann, F. (1989). Terminological Problems in the Process of Editing and Translating Sanskrit Medical Texts. In: Unschuld, P.U. (eds) Approaches to Traditional Chinese Medical Literature. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2701-8_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2701-8_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7717-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2701-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive