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Research ArticleArticle

“From the Writings of an Indian Woman”

Pharmaceutical Fragments of a Lost Ayurvedic Text on Gynecology, Preserved in a Ninth-Century Arabic Medical Compendium

Oliver Kahl
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, January 2020, 62 (3-4) 150-158; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/hopp.62.3-4.150
Oliver Kahl
* Oliver Kahl is Research Fellow, Department of Semitic Studies, University of Marburg, Germany; .
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Abstract

This short article introduces eleven fragments of an Ayurvedic work on gynecological matters. The original Sanskrit version of this unnamed work is lost entirely, and there are also no references to it whatsoever in indigenous Indian literature; however, some extracts from it are preserved in the form of Arabic translations, dating to the first half of the ninth century CE. These samples are pharmaceutical in nature, and deal with uterine disorders, sexual hygiene, conception, and cosmetics. Their significance lies, moreover, in the fact that they are explicitly linked to a female author, whose identity remains uncertain but whose very evocation is an extremely rare phenomenon in both Sanskrit and Arabic medical literature. The fragments are presented here in both their English and Arabic forms.

Keywords
  • Arabic pharmacy
  • Ayurvedic gynecology
  • female Indian authors
  • Paradise of Wisdom
  • Ali al-Tabari
  • © 2020 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals: 62 (3-4)
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
Vol. 62, Issue 3-4
1 Jan 2020
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“From the Writings of an Indian Woman”
Oliver Kahl
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Jan 2020, 62 (3-4) 150-158; DOI: 10.3368/hopp.62.3-4.150

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“From the Writings of an Indian Woman”
Oliver Kahl
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Jan 2020, 62 (3-4) 150-158; DOI: 10.3368/hopp.62.3-4.150
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Keywords

  • Arabic pharmacy
  • Ayurvedic gynecology
  • female Indian authors
  • Paradise of Wisdom
  • Ali al-Tabari
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