The Suśruta Project

The textual and cultural history of medicine in South Asia based on newly-discovered manuscript evidence

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An Ancient Pandemic Story

Posted on December 6, 2020January 6, 2021 by Dominik Wujastyk

Earlier this year, Dominik Wujastyk was interviewed for the Bangalore-based Scrolls & Leaves podcast series curated by the science journalists Mary-Rose Abraham and Gayathri Vaidyanathan. He spoke about the description of epidemic disease in the Carakasaṃhitā, the sister treatise of the Suśrutasaṃhitā.

Atreya, the renowned teacher of Ayurveda, is walking with his pupils on the banks of the river Ganga in Kampilya. Ominous signs of an epidemic shadow the grandeur of the ancient kingdom. Atreya explains to his students how an epidemic arises from degraded environmental conditions. And he points to their cause: the unrighteous actions of a particular group of citizens. Sanskrit scholar Dominik Wujastyk of the University of Alberta in Canada, narrates this compelling tale from one of the oldest Ayurvedic texts. It’s a story of surprising resonance with our current global situation.

— Scrolls & Leaves website

Listen to the full podcast here.

Recent Blog Posts

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  • Who was Bhoja?
  • Ḍalhaṇa and the Early ‘Nepalese’ Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā
  • An anusvāra and the goals of editing
  • An unknown early commentary on the Suśrutasaṃhitā

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The Suśruta Project is funded as a four-year Insight Grant by the Canadian Socal Sciences and Humanites Research Council. Grant no. 435-2020-1077.  Dates: 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2024. Applicaton DOI.

Supplementary funding is provided for the project from the Singhmar Chair Endowment Grant administered by the University of Alberta.

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