Causes of Suffering: Unravelling Suśruta and Sāṅkhya

Vitus Angermeier, Anja Vukadin

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

A passage on suffering (duḥkha) in the first section of the Suśruta­saṃhitā (SS), one of the foundational compendia of Āyurveda, elaborates on three kinds of suffering. The very same scheme also occurs in the commentarial literature of Sāṅkhya, one of the oldest and most important philosophical systems of South Asia. In the SS, however, this account leads a solitary life, never being referred to in the whole work again, or in other contemporary medical literature. This article determines the actual position of this passage within the work and its relation to the Sāṅkhya parallels, and examines other approaches regarding the causation of suffering and disease in the SS. To this end, not only its representation in the vulgate edition of the SS but also the version appearing in three early Nepalese manuscripts is considered.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-23
Number of pages23
JournalStudia Orientalia Electronica
Volume12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Funding

This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/P35301, <https://epidemics.univie.ac.at>]. For open access purposes, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any author-accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 602018 Indology

Cite this