[Buddha-l] Re: Aama do.sa I

[Dan Lusthaus]

Chris,

> The Siddha medical system - still widely taught and practised in S.
India -
> usually traces it's origin to the Buddhist Nagarjuna (Siddha Nagarjuna).
> According to a teacher I talked to from the Government Ayurvedic College
in
> Mysore, where it is taught (alongside Ayurveda and Unani) and according to
the
> head of the Sanskrit department of the University of Mysore, it was
originally a
> Buddhist medical system.

This "Nagarjuna" is also the inventor of tantra and alchemy, and the one who
retrieved the prajnaparamita sutras on the ocean bottom from the Naga king,
and numerous other superfeats. There are texts, such as one called Yoga
Ratna Mala, which are credited to this Nagarjuna (and the town of
Nagarjunakonda received that name in modern times since it is near where he
and other important Buddhists are believed to have lived in a cave temple
which was never discovered and now lies under tons of water as a result of
one of the many dam projects that has forced millions to evacuate their
homes -- but I digress). Yoga Ratna mala is a form of folk medicine, lots of
spells (for which this "Nagarjuna" is also well-known). For instance:

"If the head of a black cobra and the tongue of a mad dog are kept inside
the hoof of a horse and placed underground near the gate of a house, the
residents of the house will go mad within seven days" (verse 11, ch. 1) [Skt
version available on request]

I suspect the residents might be angry because you are stinking up the
neighborhood and being cruel to animals. Whatever the provenance of such
material and its historical roots, it is not of much help when dealing with
Asanga (who was from Gandhara -- actually Purusapura, today the militant
Islamic stronghold of Peshawar -- and probably never got further south than
the Ujjain area) or the Caraka-samhita. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Dan