Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld

Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld (1928–) was a physician scholar famous for his researches in Indology, especially in the field of Ayurveda. The Dutch man will be remembered for his encyclopedic work on the History of Indian Medical Literature''. '''The Himalayan task of identifying the treatises on Indian medicine is far from complete, still present work will be a bible for both the students of Ayurveda and those inclined in the study of Sanskrit, Indian philosophy, anthropology and history. Dr Meulenbeld also translated the first ten chapters of Madhavanidana - Sanskrit treatise along with its Sanskrit commentaries: Madhukoshatika and Athankadarpana in 1974 under the supervision of legendary Indologist Dr.J.Gonda. The index of technical terms appended to Madhavanidana translation is one of its uniqueness. The history of Indian medicine roughly covers a time frame of two millennia,from the vedic period to cuurent era. The text covers the Sanskrit treatises and the pali or prakrit works by the Buddhist monks. It also covers some of the recent works in Hindi and also the Ayurvedic tradition of near by island nation of Sri Lanka. The first volume of the text covers the BIG TRIO or BHRIT TRAYI- the three principal authors /works (Vagbhata's two works are taken together as an unit) Carakasamhita, Susrutha samhita, Astangasamgraha and''' Astangahradya and the principal commentaries on these treatises. The second volume deals with the chronological order of the texts and the third one is the index. The whole series is in five bounds. Though the work was completed in the 2002 it is a fact that many of the common Indian Ayurvedic Physicians are not familiar with this great work, extremely high price of this book in the subcontinent condition is the principal reason for this sad plight. The scholarship of Meulenbeld is extented to our cyber space in the form of annotated bibliography of Indian Medicine with more than 10000 entries.www.indianmedicine.ub.rug.nl. References History of Indian Medical Literature .Dr.G.J.Meulenbeld.Gorningen Oriental Studies No.15 Vol.1-3. MadhavaNidana -English translation with princcipal commentaries chapters 1- 10; G.J.meulenbeld promotor Dr Jan Gonda 1974 Review of History of Indian Medical Literature of Dr G.J.Meulenbeld By Dr Dominik Wujastyk