BOOK REVIEW

The Casket of Medicine (Bheshajjamanjusha, Chapters 1-18)

Translated by Junadasa Liyanaratne
Published by Pali Text Society, Oxford, 2002
The Bheshajjamanjusha is an important work on Ayurvedic work on Ayurvedic medicine written
in Pali in Sri Lanka in the 13th Century CE by a Buddhist Monk, It was later revised and
translated into Sinhalese in the 18th Century CE during the reign of King Viraparakrama
Narendrasimha.
This work is important from a historical point of view, as it is the only known medical work
written in Pali. A critical edition of this work done by Professor Jinadasa Lyianaratne was
published by the Pali Text Society in 1996.
As a corollary to the critically edited text, Prof. Liyanaratne has completed a scholarly translation
of the work, which was also published by the Pali Text Society in 2002.
Prof. Liyanaratne closely follows the translation of the Bheshajjamanjusha composed by
Saranamkara in the 18th century and also refers to the commentaries of Arunadatta and hemadri
on the Ashtanga hridayam, wherever there are parallels to this work.
It is interesting to note that Prof. Liyanaratne has pointed out differences between the Sinhalese
translatin and the Sanskrit commentaries on Ashanga Hridayam and preferentially chosen the
more valid interpretation for his translation.
It is commendable that great care has been taken to provide botanical equivalents of the plant
names listed in the work. The Sinhala equivalents of the plant names have been give priority and
have been listed in the index of the work. The difficulties in arriving at the proper botanical
identification of the plants have been amply illustrated in the introduction.
The extensive glossary provided at the end of the work is very helpful to familiarize with
technical words.
The translation is very lucid and the footnotes provided on each page greatly facilitates easy
reading.
The eighteen chapters in this work deal with the following topics 1. Introductory chapter, 2.
Drugs etc, 3. Good living, 4. Prevention of disease, 5. Food and food preparations, 6. Liquid

drugs, 7. Toxic food, 8. Antidotes, 9. Different kinds of indigestion, 10. Groups of drugs, 11.
Major therapeutics, 12. Minor therapeutics, 13. Unfavorable signs of messengers, 14.
Unfavorable signs met on the way, 15. Unfavorable dreams, 16. Unfavorable prodromes, 17.
Fatal diseases, 18. General treatment of diseases.
On the whole, the book is an excellent resource material for historians of medicine as well as
scholars of Ayurveda.