योगचंद्रिका (चिकित्सा ग्रन्थ): Yogacandrika: A Book on Treatment

About the Book:

Yogacandrika a sixteenth century Ayurvedika treatise written by Laksmana Pandita is a valuable treasure of medical recipes prevailent during those days, some of which are not found in Ayurvedika classics. During medieval period Indian sciences suffered a setback and in that very process Yogacandrika also went to ablivion and became a personal possession of some individuals. Fortunately it is found in a few libraries in the form of manuscript. Dr. Asha Kumar and Prof. (Km.) Prem Vati Tewari B.H.U. procured eleven such mss. from different libraries, edited and translated it in Hindi and English. The treatise is useful for not only teachers, researchists and students but also for general practitioners.

About the Author:

Dr. (Mrs.) Asha Kumari M.A., Ph.D. exponent in Samskrita has acquired special experience of working on manuscripts during her work tenure with NISTADS (project on History of Science and Technology during Medieval Period). As a book it is her first work but she has been writing articles, poems and stories in different journals and magazines on literary, social and cultural subjects. Her source of inspiration has always been ancient Sanskrita literature.

Prof. (Km.) P. V. Tewari A.M.B.S., Ph.D. elder sister of Dr (Mrs.) Asha Kumari daughter of freedom fighter Late Pt. Rama Shanker Tewari a recipient of Tamrapatra, Ex. Dean faculty of ayurveda, & Ex. H.O.D. Dept of Prasuti tantra, I. M. S., B. H. U. has produced large number of D.Ay.M.M.D.Ays and Ph.Ds, written more than 250 research papers authored nine books. She has been associated with academic/administration bodies of all important research and academic organisations of ayurveda of the country. Her book Ayurvedya prasuti tantra and striroga has received good recognition and awards.

Preface:

This work, an edition and translation of Laksmana Pandita's 'Yogacandrika', has been done with a view of bringing forth a piece of knowledge from oblivion to limelight. Working on a manuscript is certainly an arduous job, but once you visit any library, particularly its manuscript section, you will but be shocked to see such a great treasure of knowledge lying in dark shelves, probably waiting for an eye to fall on them, and suddenly four lines of Thomas Gray are embodied before you-

"Full many a gems of purest ray serene,
the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
Full many a flowers are to blush unseen,
and waste their fragrance in desert air."

Its not humanly possible for any one to bring out all that treasure to light, but if even one work of any scholar is brought forth, we believe, is a small offering to goddess Saraswati, who bestowed upon us the capacity to hold a pen atleast. Thus we tookup this work, but not being proficient enough and initially getting only one ms (Bhandarkar), we had to face many difficulties, however availability of other mss specially 'Yogacandrika Vilasa' and 'Yogacandrika Vyakhya' easedup the work a little.

The courage to advance our first step towards this service of goddess Saraswati was provided by the fatherly blessings, affection and guidance of Prof. W. H. Abdi and Prof. K. S. Shukla, for they only gave us an insight to understand mss. Inspite of that insight and availability of all the mss., this work could not have been possible but for the krpa, blessings, guidance, support and encouragement received from our guruji Prof. P. V. Sharma, who spared his valuable time to write the foreword of this book. We have no words to express our gratitude to these reverend elders, we can only bow to them with folded hands.

It will be unfair if we miss to mention the name of Dr. Neelam Rani Srivastava for the help she provided all through the work. Well, the love she has for us leaves no space for thanks.

We express our heartiest gratitude to the staff members of Bhandarbar Oriental Research Institute Library-Poona, for their cordial behavior and helping attitude in providing a clean and clear photocopy of the mss. within two days and also permission of its publication. We also thank the libraries of Baroda and Bombay Universities, Saraswati Bhavan of Sampurnanada Sanskrit University, Varanasi and director, Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, New Delhi for providing the mss. Dr. Neeraj Kumar, Dr. R.D. Sharma and Mrs. S. Sharma deserve thanks for their cooperation in procuring the mss.

It is impertinent to than ones own family members but the work remains incomplete without mentioning the names of our elder sister Dr. (Mrs.) Pushpa Vati Tewari, whose blessings have always been a support to us, Sri Yashwant Singh (Dr. Asha's husband) for his cooperation, encouragement and moral support inspite of his personal inconveniences and our children Atul, Kanaka, Alok, Anjali, Anshu and Akshay for their moral and practical support.

We would like to thank Sri G. C. Srivastava for english typing. Last but not least Sri Ashok Gupta and Sri Sunil Gupta of Chaukhambha Visvabharati, Varanasi deserve special mention for their daring enterprise to take up the charge of publication of an unknown ms and also speedy completion of the work.

We bow to almighty to provide us vision, energy and courage to work further.

In the end we apologise for the shortcomings in the work and hope erudites will accept it and give their constructive criticism.

VasantaPancami Sam. 2054
(Feb. 1, 1998)

Asha Kumar
Prem Vati Tewari