The Origin of the Life of a Human Being (Conception and the Female According to Ancient Indian Medical and Sexological Literature)
IDD995
by Rahul Peter Das
Hardcover (Edition: 2003)
Motilal Banarsidass Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 81-208-1998-5
Size: 9.8'' X 7.0''
Pages: 746
About the Author:
Rahul Peter Das, born in 1954 in Germany, was educated in India upto Pre-Medical Examination of Calcutta University. A National Merit Scholar as well as Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search scholarship holder and Science Fair award winner, he represented India at the London International Youth Science Fortnight in 1973. Leaving for Germany in 1974, he had to pass the school leaving examination (Abitur), which he did in 1975. In the same year, he enrolled at the University of Cologne, where he took up Indology, Islamic Studies and Tamil, moving on in 1978 to University of Hamburg. There he obtained his M.A. degree (1981), D. Phil degree (1985) and a degree in Habilitation (1993). From 1981 to 1994 he did research work at the Universities of Hamburg, Bonn and Groningen (Netherlands), also teaching at the Universities of Hamburg and Groningen. Since 1994 he holds the chair for the Philology of Modern Indian Languages at the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, where in 2000 he instituted a new M.A. course on the Languages and Cultures of Post-Classical South Asia. In the first semester of his tenure he was simultaneously guest professor for Indology at the University of Marburg. He has published extensively on various aspects of South Asian studies, most recently on strategic issues related to South Asia.
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Preface ix
Abbreviations xiii
CHAPTERS
1. Introduction 1
2. The Problem 14
3. The Bower Manuscript 30
4. The 'Classical' Medical Texts 31
5. The Carakasamhita 33
6. The Susrutasamhita (1): Two Fluids or One? 60
7. The Susrutasamhita (2): The Problem of Blood and Metabolism 108
8. The Susrutasamhita (3): Semen of Females and Other Problems 222
9. The Astangahrdaya and the Astangasangraha 255
10. Other Ancient Medical Texts 266
11. Later Medical Works 312
12. Sexological Works: Orgasm and Ejaculation 373
13. Tubular Structures and Vital Fluids 443
14. Conclusions 487
Appendix I: Parallels in Greek and Yunani Medicine 498
Appendix II: Discussion of Selected Technical Terms 511
Bibliography 594
Further Relevant Literature which could not be Utilised in this Study 627
Index rerum 630
Index verborum 675
Index locorum 690
Colophon 729
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