Chapter Summary

Many medicinal substances are recorded in the extant versions of the Chapter on Medicine. This present chapter has covered the majority of them. These drugs include those medicines which are allowed for use within seven days, and those which are permitted for use throughout the duration of one’s life. The former includes certain lipids and sweets, as well as animal fats. The latter comprises different vegetal parts and derivatives (such as roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, decoctions, and ashes), and minerals (such as salts). Some substances, such as scented drugs, powders, putrid medicines, and some unclassifiable ones, do not form any particular groups in the Chapters on Medicine and they are described in the last section on miscellaneous drugs. The data on these substances have been examined by the three-fold interpretative method: they are firstly collected and narrated, then exposited with the help of commentarial and Āyurvedic information, and finally described and translated in terms of modern scientific/medical terminology and knowledge. With this mode of study, readers should be able to identify the drugs named in the Chapters on Medicine, and be able to explore further information in the books on materia medica of Indian medicine if they wish.

The lists of medicinal substances amongst the extant Chapters on Medicine, as demonstrated in this chapter, are largely similar. But some differences can be noticed in these lists, such as the animal fats in the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya; the roots in the Dharmaguptaka and Mahāsāṃghika Vinayas; the leaves and the decoctions/astringent medicines in the Theravāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayas; the scented substances in the Dharmaguptaka and Mahāsāṃghika Vinayas; and the medicinal powders in the Theravāda, Dharmaguptaka, and Mahāsāṃghika Vinayas. The different medicinal substances in the lists may be due to corruptions in the transmissions of the Chapters on Medicine, as well as adaptation of available drugs in new localities of the Buddhist schools/ monasteries.^[1]

However, not all the drugs in the Chapters on Medicine have been covered in this chapter. Those mentioned as remedies for certain illnesses, such as collyria for eye diseases and special beverages for humoral problems, will be examined together with other cures when we discuss these diseases and their treatments in the next chapter.