CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by PubMed Central Ancient Science of Life, Vol No. XIII Nos. 1 & 2, July-October 1993, Pages 2 - 10 TWO FRENCH PIONEER HISTORIANS OF INDIAN MEDICINE ARION ROSU Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France Received: 11 February, 1991 Accepted: 13 July,1992 ABSTRACT: This text constitutes a summary of the author’s recent book on Gustave Lietard (1833 – 1904) and Palmyr Cordier (1871 – 1914),the first historians of Ayurveda in France. In this book, their writings are reprinted and analysed in a long introduction of Ayurvedic historiography. A series of coincidences led the present of on the history of Indian science bequeathed which justify a re-publication of to the Societe Asiatique by Jean Filliozat contributions made by two French pioneers (1906 – 1982). It was great surprise to find in the history of Indian medicine : Gustave among these books Ayurvedic texts from the Lietard (1833 – 1904), a hydropathic private library of Corider, which Jean physician at Plombieres-les-Bains, in Filliozat had purchased from a Parisian Lorrainem and Palmyr Cordier (1871 – bookseller some time before 1940. There 1914), a medical doctor pracitising in are apporimately sixty-five such texts, to French colonies in the East (Chandernagore, which may be added the twenty-five Pondicherry and Indochina). volumes of Tibetology previously owned by Cordier and now in the Bacot collection of The first discovery was that of the Lietard Societe Asiatique. A large number of the Collection in the Library of the Wellcome Ayurvedic texts contain Cordier’s Institute for the History of Medicine in annotations, the accuracy of which greatly London. This collection consists of printed enhances the value of this collection held by documents and manuscripts (notes, papers the Societe Asiatique. Jean Filliozat and letters) concerning the history of devoted a life of scholarship to the study of medicine, particularly that of Ayurvedic these Sanskrit sources, which he himself medicine. Lietard’s voluminous annotated in turn. The Sanskrit manuscripts correspondence with fellow scholars in the of Palmyr Cordier collection, acquired in fields of Indology and the history of 1932 by the Bibliotheque Nationale through medicine includes the many letters he the good offices Sylvain Levi, were the received from his close collaborator, Palmyr materials on which were based Filliozat’s Cordier. Theirs was more than merely a earliest Indological studies; and the works scholarly relationship; it was a deep Jean Filliozat considered to be the most friendship, a sort of father-son relationship precious among those bequeathed were the (especially as Lietard met Cordier for the Ayurvedic editions annotated by Cordier. first time shortly after the death of his son, a yound man of Cordier’s generation). The documents found by the present writer in London and Paris constitutes a rich source The second discovery was that of the of information concerning fifty years of ayurvedic material found among the works Ayurvedic studies in France. In view of Pages 2 - 10 their interests for an analysis of the scholarly Western medicine: anatomy and production of Lietard and Cordier, it was physiology, surgery and obstetrics, deemed worthwhile to republish the material medica and therapeutics. The historical works of these two physicians. author focuses the attention of the This field study in France which was French medical world on Ayurveda, inaugurated by Lietard and carried forward neglected till then, and points out that it by his “Protégé” Cordier, has progressed is wrong to look for antiquity only in during the last fifty years thanks to the Rome and Athens (see p.9 below). research and teaching activities of Jean Filliozat in Paris and also in Pondicherry, 2. Historical letters on Indian medicine where he founded the French Institute in (1862 – 1863). In five Letters, Lietard 1955. The publication in French of his expands his thesis and develops the doctoral thesis on the Classical doctrine of following points: medicine and Indo Indian Medicine (1949), which appeared European comparative mythology, the some fifty years after J. Jolly’s monograph origin and development of Ayurveda, its Indian Medicine (1901), was also an teaching and practice, an outline of important date in the history Ayurvedic Sanskrit medical literature, the medical studies. system of Ayurveda and its relations with Samkhya philosophy, as well as In the introduction to the present volume, humoral pathology (tridosa). which is the survey of Ayurvedic historiography from ancient times to present 3. Susruta (1883). In the Dictionnaire day, an effort has been made to give a encyclopedique des sciences medicales, critical evaluation of the contributions of Lietard contributes nearly twenty-five Lietard and Cordier to the study of Indian articles on Ayurvedic topics including medicine. Susruta. The latter remains a complete and thorough study of this classic of The following is an annoted list of the works Indian medicine (forty closely printed of Lietard and Cordieron the history of pages). Ayurvedic medicine, which has been reprinted in the present volume. 4. Fragments of history and bibliography (1883 – 1884). The first article in this I. Works by Gustave Lietard : series describes the spread of Ayurveda in the Middle East and Indochina in the 1. Essay on the history of Indian medicine ninth century. The second deals with (doctoral thesis at the University of hygiene and health institutions in Strasbourg, 1858). First dissertation on ancient India according to medical and Ayurveda in France, based primarily on non-medical texts (Laws of Manu, F. Hessler’s Latin version of the epics, inscriptions). Being a non- Susrutasamhita (1844 – 1850). sanskrit scholar, Lietard was highly Beginning with an outline of the early interested in a reliable translation of developments of Indian medicine, the Susruta in the light of ancient work describes the teaching and practice commentaries. In the third article, he of Ayurveda according to Susruta. reviews a new but incomplete English Secondly, Lietard analyses Susruta’s version of Susruta’s work by U.C. Dutt text under categories appropriate to (Calcutta 1883 – 1891), which appeared Pages 2 - 10 after that of A.M. Kunte (Bombay the Rgveda, as was suggested by some 1877). scholars. In fact, the first allusion to tridosha in Sanskrit literature goes back 5. Note of Indian anatomical knowledge to the grammarian Katyayana of the (1884) : Anatomical and physiological fourth century B.C., which proves data based as usual on Susruta. beyond doubt the Indian origin of this pathological doctrine. 6. Indian medical literature (1896). An outline of classical as well as 10. Review of P. Cordier’s “Some new data postclassical Ayurvedic literature : concerning Sanskrit medical treatises Caraka, Susruta, the Bower Manuscript, prior to the thirteenth century” (1899). Vaghbata, Cakrapani, Vangasena, Sarngadhara, Bhavamisra and medical 11. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I-tsing glossaries (nighantu). and the medicine of seventh-century India. (1902). 7. Caraka, the physician. The Hippocratic Oath and the Oath of the Indian 12. Review of J. Jolly’s “Indian physicians (1897). After repeatedly medicine”(1903). These last dealing with the relations between publications (10,11,12) of the French Ayurveda and Greek medicine, Lietard scholar on medical history are three studies the question of medical ethics, reviews, the first regarding a pamphlet drawing a parallel between the of Cordier (1899) and the other two of Hippocratic Oath and other Greek texts the following works of the German on the one hand, and deontological rules Indologist J. Jolly, with whom Lietard laid down by Caraka and Susruta on the had excellent relations: 1. Indian other. medicine (1901), translated from German by C.G. Kashikar (1951; 2nd ed. 8. A survey of the history of Indian 1977); 2. Note on the medical data in I- medicine (1897). Lietard gives a tsing’s record (ZDMG 1902). In his general view of Ayurveda in this brief correspondence with Lietard, Jolly study of the history of Oriental expresses his gratitude to the former and medicine, published in the Grande pays tribute to the French contributions encyclopedie, vol XXIII. to the history of Indian medicine. 9. The Indian humoral doctrine and the Gustave Lietard, physician and scholar, is Rgveda (1898). Regarding the the real pioneer of Ayurvedic studies in interchange of ideas between ancient France. He spread his knowledge in this India and the Mediterranean world, field among Orientalists and medical men, Lietard was prone to consider that in Paris as well as in his province of Greece made a greater contribution than Lorraine. He continued his historical India. However Jean Filliozat did not research for almost half a century, accept this kind of conjecture any more sometimes in difficult circumstances. He than the hypothesis of the Greek origin also encouraged and gave his guidance to of the tridosha theory. In this article, the young doctor Palmyr Cordier, who Lietard is more cautious about the carried forward the work of his forerunner. humoral theory which is not found in Pages 2 - 10 almost a legendary figure, to whom are II. Work by Palmyr Cordier : attributed Buddhist works as well as a number of technical texts on a variety of 1. A study of Indian medicine : Vedic and topics such as medicine, alchemy and heroic times (doctoral thesis at the even magic. Nagarjuna is also supposed University of Bordeaux, 1894). Cordier to have revised the Susrutasamhita began his studies in Sanskirt and Pali (Dalhana) and to have added to it the when he was very young prior to Uttratantra (a preface to the embarking on the risky career of a Vaidyakasabdasindhu). colonial physician. He then prepared the second French thesis on Ayurveda, 4. Some new data concerning Sanskrit which is characterized by a wide use of medical treatises prior to the thirteenth non-medical Sanskrit texts, Vedic, epic century (1899).