Sinhalese Medical Manuscripts in Paris - article ; n°1 ; vol.76, pg 185-199

Jinadasa Liyanaratne

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Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient - Année 1987 - Volume 76 - Numéro 1 - Pages 185-199
15 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: BULLETIN_DE_L-ECOLE_FRANCAISE_D-EXTREME-ORIENT
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1987
• Nombre de lectures: 35
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Jinadasa Liyanaratne
Sinhalese Medical Manuscripts in Paris
In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 76, 1987. pp. 185-199.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Liyanaratne Jinadasa. Sinhalese Medical Manuscripts in Paris. In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 76,
1987. pp. 185-199.
doi : 10.3406/befeo.1987.1723
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/befeo_0336-1519_1987_num_76_1_1723SINHALESE MEDICAL MANUSCRIPTS IN PARIS
BY
Jinadasa LIYANARATNE
As part of a research project on the history of medical literature in Sri Lanka, a survey was
made in the following public institutions in Paris, with a view to tracing Srilankan medical
mss. : Archives and Library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Archives Nationales, Bibli
othèque de l'Arsenal, Bibliothèque Nationale, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonně, Bibliothèque
Victor-Cousin, Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, Musée de l'Homme, Musée de la Marine,
and Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. '
In the course of that survey, six palm-leaf medical mss. , written in the Sinhalese language
and script were found, five in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the sixth in the Musée de
l'Homme. The six mss. are indicated below, under the name of the institution in which they
are found, with the call number within brackets at the end of each item:
Bibliothèque Nationale (BN):
1) Bhesajjamanjusàsannaya - (В MS), (Indien 924),
2) Same title, (Pali 560),
3) Yogaratnàkaraya - (YR) , (Indien 932) ,
4) Two formularies of medical prescriptions, without titles, in the same ms., (Indien 1059),
5) Formulary of medical without title, (Indien 1063).
Musée de l'Homme:
6) Formulary of medical prescriptions, without title, (69.14.40).
Out of these six mss., items 1 (Indien 924), 3 (Indien 932), and 4 (Indien 1059) have been
analysed in my Catalogue des manuscrits singhalais, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1983.
Items 2 (Pâli 560), and 5 (Indien 1063) were not included in that Catalogue, because the
former was found later in the Pâli collection, and the latter is a recent acquisition.
In the present paper, only the items 2 (Pâli 560), 5 (Indien 1063), and 6 (69.14.40), not
included in the Catalogue des manuscrits singhalais, will be described. It has to be pointed
out that the YR (Indien 932) was not fully analysed in the above mentioned Catalogue,
1 An important private collection, that of the Missions étrangères in Paris, is supposed to possess quite a
number of oriental mss. It is rather difficult to have access to these documents. However, an attempt will be made to
examine them. 186 Jinadasa Liyanaratne
because of the difficulty in reading it, due to the palm-leaves not being blackened. However,
as this is an important ms. , a supplementary note, especially with reference to its date, will be
added to this paper.
2. Bhesajjamanjusàsannaya (Pâli 560), consists of 377 ff . , 695 x 60 mm, foliated from ka
to bhl, plus one non-foliated leaf giving the summary of contents. A later supplementary
foliation in Arabic numerals is marked in ink. The latter foliation is erroneous from f. tha,
which is counted as f . 256, whereas the real f . 256 corresponding to f . tah is omitted. There are
7 to 9 lines per folio and about 125 aksara in each line. The ms. is written neatly in fairly big
characters. The palm-leaves are held together with two wooden covers (pot-kamba), 700 x 60
mm.
The ms. may be dated to the 19th century, and it belongs to the Eugène Burnouf collection.
As its title indicates, the В MS is a Sinhalese sannaya2 of the Bhesajjamaňjusa (BM), which
is the only medical treatise written in the Pâli language.
According to the colophon of the В MS - the colophons of the two mss. , Indien 924 and Pâli
560, tally with each other except for a few minor variant readings - the BM was written by the
Mahâsthavira, Head of the fraternity of the Five Colleges {Paspiruvanmulasâmîf , belonging
to the Brahmin caste (Bráhmanavamšánvaya), in the year 1183 of the Saka era ( = 1261
a.d.), when King Sri Pandita Parâkramabàhu was reigning in the city of Dambadeni.4
The colophon further says that the tïkà (commentaries) and the sanna of the BM had
become extinct in the course of time, and only the book of stanzas (gàtàpota) reached the
hands of King Sri Vïraparàkrama Narendrasimha (1707-1739), who invited (the Buddhist
monk) Saranamkara, resident of the Uposathàràma, to write that treatise in Sinhalese. The
colophon adds that Saranamkara supplied afresh half of the BMS, and after consulting
numerous other medical works, with the help of his teacher Palkumbure Atthadassi Thera
and his own pupils, wrote the commentary (gathàvyàkhyânaya vasayen liya) to the stanzas of
the eighteen chapters (paddhati) from the Upanyâsavidhipaddhati to the Rogasàmànya-
paddhati, using ancient sanna (pûrvasanyayan àsraya kota)5 and wrote forty-two chapters
2 Sannaya or sanne (plural: sanna, sannayan) is a word to word translation, interspersed with explanatory
matter. Thus it is different from a commentary, which is called atuvâ (Pâli atthakatha) and also tïkà. The word
sannaya has been translated often as "interverbal paraphrase".
3 Regarding the author of the BM, G. P. Malalasekera, referring to Wickremasinghe {Catalogue of the Sinhalese
manuscripts in the British Library, London 1900, p. 58), says: 'In a Sinhalese medical work, Yogaratnâkara, ... a verse in
the colophon states that that work was arranged on the plan, "of the Manjusà, a medical work in Pali stanzas,
composed by Atthadassi Thera about the year a.d. 1267." If this information be correct, the author is undoubtedly
our Panca-mula-parivena-Adhipati.' {The Pali Literature of Ceylon, Colombo, reprint 1958, p. 215.) However, the
colophon of the ms. of the YR in the BL (Or. 4142) does not state that the work was arranged on the plan of the
Manjusà . . . Aparently, it is merely a statement found in the Kynsey report on the parangi disease in Ceylon {Ceylon
Sessional Papers, 1881, viii), which is cited by Wickremasinghe.
4 The colophon of the В M has the following stanza, indicative of the author and the year of composition of the
work:
sake Parakkamabhujavhanarinda Jambu-
ddonï-puramhi nivasam gajakutasarikhe
brahmanvayo yati-r-akasi bhisakkatantam-
etaň ca Panca-parivena-samuha-nâtho. (éd. Kulatilaka, p. 872).
5 This is in contradiction to the previous statement that the tiká and sannayan of the BM had become extinct
when the book reached the hands of King Vïraparàkrama Narendrasimha. The "ancient sannayan" may therefore
refer to those written for the "numerous other medical works" consulted in the redaction of the BMS. Sinhalese medical manuscripts in Paris 187
from the Jvarapaddhati to the Rasâyanapaddhati in Sinhalese, along with (Pali) stanzas
(gàthâ sahita helupota vasayen Ну à) for the facility of understanding etiology and therapeutics
(suvasè nidàna abhipràva hàpiliyan dànagannà pinisa), and finished writing this BMS in the
park-monastery {udyànagata vihàrayehidïf , near the city of Kundasàlê, on Monday, the fifth
lunar day of the dark half (ava visěniya) of the month of June (poson) in the year 1656 of the
Saka era (= 1734 a.d.). (Kulatilaka ed. pp. 873-874; Pali 560, f. 375b. 6-f. 376.6).
The 60 chapters of the BMS are given below in the order enumerated in 12 stanzas at the
beginning of the work ed. pp. 3-6; ms. Pali 560 f. 2, lines 1-4). However, the
names of chapters, given within brackets, are those indicated at the close of each chapter in
the ms. Pali 560. Those names are given as they appear in the ms. so that they may serve as an
index to the linguistic aspect of the ms., and may also help scholars to compare the readings
with those of the printed editions. It will be observed that the ms. gives the chapter-names
sometimes in the Pâli form, sometimes in the Sanskrit form. The English renderings which
precede them in the list below are not necessarily direct translations, but rather indications of
the contents of the chapters. With regard to diseases, mostly symptoms indicated in the
introductory stanzas of the particular chapters are given, rather than the translations of the
names of diseases. This method was followed through respect for the principle of being
cautious in using modern medical terminology in the translation of Àyurvedic medical terms.
The figures separated with a full-stop, given at the end of each chapter-name refer to the folio
number and the line number respectively. These numbers help ascertain the length of each
chapter on the one hand, and the order of the chapters in the ms. on the other. The order of
the chapters, as found in the ms. can be summarised as follows: 1-5, 19-29, 9, 13-18, 10-12,
7-8, 6, 34-35, 33, 30-60. The names of the chapters 33, 34 and 35 are repeated twice.
The 60 chapters of the BMS are the following:
1. Explanatory chapter (upanya