Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

however, it is in parts written in a style so involved that even Orientalists of acknowedged ability have found it impossible to undertake a translation of the whole of it. It is no disparagement to Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar s scholarship to recall the fact that he translated a part of ‘Charaka’ into English in his medical journal , but was obliged to bring his self-imposed trak to a premature /conclusion. Subsequently, Kabiraj Abinsh Kabiratna engaged in a translation of the .work into English and Bengalee, and . such portions as have been already put into type, and circulated among Sanskritists in Europe and America have been reviewed in terms of the highest praise. * * *

Philadelphia , U. S. A.

Dear Sir,

Permit me to thank you heartily for the fourth fascicules of your translation. How much, my dear Sir, you are to be praised for the steady progress of so admirable a work ! To those who feel the utter lone¬ liness of the position of a true student of letters in the present age, your cowitryman' s wise and noble writing comes like something refreshing and consoling. In my own country, this work has had a success, I dared not hope for it, — a success, I think, due to the profound nattiralness of the style and teaching. And scientific men ought to be chiefly benefited by a perusal oj it, being, as they are, almost wholly dedicated to the culture of the ‘ relative spirit ’ of mordern times, and unused to the greater serious¬ ness and simplicity of the. ancient work. Is it not a matter of, rejoicing that men do homage to the gravity

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tlrtd piety of the antique spirit, when they chanCe to observe it ?

I am, Sir, With many thanks very truly yours* (Sd.) Paul Bartholom, M D.

New York

t)ear Sir,

Accept ftiy siricerest thanks for the three fasci¬ cules of the “Charaka-Samhita,” received. Nothing could be more interesting than the clear glimpses they give into the science of that remote, yet fascinating, World of ancient India, and I think that this newest of communities will not be slow to sympathise with your labours in bringing within reach the thought and light of one of the oldest of lores- It will give me much pleasure to receive the work as it appears, and to send you some notice of it in the Press.

Yours very faithfully, (Sd,) Titus Munson coan,

Sai tit Louis, Missouri , V. S.A.

Dear Sir, * * * * *

* * It is with pleasure that I received! the third pan, which you sent me, of the translation into English of the medical work Charaka-Samhita ; and I have perused it with gratification. If you see fit to send me the balance of the work as you propose, I shall take pleasure in doing all I can to lay the subject before those who, I think, will appreciate it. I am always glad to bring before the public our ancient literature, for I feel that I have been in this same business in past incarnations,

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for you know, whilst we may have been born, some of us, this time in the United States of America, we have passed through other incarnations, in countries from whence we have been last previously sent on our present mission. With many thanks for your good and kind letter,

I remain, very respectfully, and yours faithfully,

(Sd.) William Throckmorton,

W. D. Brown, Esq, a correspondent of the Daily Tribune of Salt Lake City, United States, America, says : — “It is a highly philosophical work ; its deliverances on many subjects, unsurpassed for brevity and weight, are extremely suggestive. Locked in a difficult tongue, these hints for ages have lain unutilized. A careful study of the work may be of the utmost importance to science and the sacred cause of alleviating human misery, It is a book of knowedge concerning the sages of an ancient and mar¬ vellous civilization; one would naturally conclude, by reading the various medical compounds it contains, that we had at last discovered the long-looked-for elixir of life.”

(The Chicago Apothecary , Vol. II No. %.)

“Physicians and Pharmacists will find the work intensely interesting and to most of its readers the con¬ tents will prove a revelation, forinstead of being acollection of mystic exorcism, the work abounds in highly philoso^ phical aphorisms and its Materia Medica puts to shmae some of the simples and compunds extolled by European Medical writers of compaiatively modern times.

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“The hygienic and dietic rules of ‘Charaka-Samhita’ are remarkably terse and generally as. good as those now formulated,”

( The Mail and Express, New York,

Saturday Evening, February 4th, 1893.)

A learned Pandit of Calcutta, Avinash Chandra Kaviratna, has opened up a curious byway of literature in his translation of the ancient Sanskrit medical treatises. Himself a physician and practising according to the old ■ system or the Hindoos, his work appeals from the special point of view to physicians and to the public in general as affording an insight into that most fascinating domain, an intellectual culture almost wholly different from our -

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Calcutta