RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 “From the Writings of an Indian Woman”
JF History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
JO His of Phar and Pharma
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 150
OP 158
DO 10.3368/hopp.62.3-4.150
VO 62
IS 3-4
A1 Kahl, Oliver
YR 2020
UL http://hopp.uwpress.org/content/62/3-4/150.abstract
AB 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.