Why critical editions matter. An example from Ayurveda, Suśrutasaṃhitā. According to the vulgate editions (none of them critical), all the compilations of early Ayurveda have a chapter on the seasons, seasonal hazards and appropriate diet and conduct near their beginning. 🧵1/7 The critical edition of the Suśruta Project (sushrutaproject.org) revealed that in the oldest surviving manuscript (878 CE, from Nepal) the seasons chapter of the Suśrutasaṃhitā (SS) contained no seasonal descriptions at all: saktumiva.org/wiki/wujastyk/… 2/7

Someone recently asked me why I, conducting a project on #epidemics, write a paper on #mantras in #Ayurveda. Here is the reason: Early South Asian medical compilations discuss epidemics and how to treat them. They suggest various countermeasures … Besides more "medical" remedies they suggest also truthfulness, compassion, #mantras, offerings, fasting, atonement, veneration of gods, certain rituals etc. – measures belonging to the class of remedies "depending on the supernatural" (daivavyapāśraya).