A Critical Edition of the Suśrutasaṃhitā Based on the Earliest Nepalese Manuscripts

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This is the online edition and manuscript transcriptions created as part of the Suśruta Project. Here, you may view the evolving critical editions of several parts of the Suśrutasaṃhitā. You can also read the various manuscript transcriptions individually, or collate and compare them in the manner of a critical edition.

The TEI XML transcriptions of manuscripts and editions are stored at a Github project repository.

The editions and manuscript transcriptions can be viewed at the links below. Links are to the IAST script display, but you can change to Devanagari or several other scripts using the on-screen menu button अ.

The tables give links to adhyāyas that have received editorial attention (not always final).

Instructions

“New edition” means that the project has released an edition with full apparatus. At the present time (2022-2025), the editions of most adhyāyas are provisional: work on proof-reading and edition is still ongoing on a daily basis. These adhyāyas may be considered to be something like “critical collations” or a provisional or first draft edition. You will see the edition in the main window, and the variants from the manuscripts (K, N, H) and the printed edition (A) in the critical apparatus on the right.

  • K = MS Kathmandu Kaiser Library 699
  • N = MS Kathmandu National Archives 1-1079
  • H = MS Kathmandu National Archives 5-333
  • A = The printed edition of 1938 edited by Y. T. Ācārya.

Chapters marked with a puṣpikā ❈ have received critical editorial attention and may be considered completed critical editions.

The “Instructions for Readers” documentation explains how to read the above editions, how to select particular manuscripts for examination, and how to generate the critical apparatus. The most common option is to press “other witnesses” in the left menu bar, then “select all”, then “generate apparatus.” Click the अ character in the right-hand menu to select your preferred display script.

1 Sūtrasthāna adhyāyas 1-31, 32-46

Based on witnesses K, N, and H.
Witness K is not available after SS.1.32.

                   
❈1 ❈2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 ❈13 ❈14 15 ❈16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46        

2 Nidānasthāna

Based on witnesses K, N, and H. Witness K is not available for most of this adhyāya.

                   
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16        

3 Śārīrasthāna 

Based on witnesses N, and H.
Witness K is not available for this adhyāya.
Witness N ends at 3.2.35 and is not available after that point.

                   
1 ❈2 ❈3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 Cikitsāsthāna adhyāyas 1–20, 21–40

Based on witnesses K and H.
Witness K is not available for adhyāyas 1-18, 27 and 28.

                   
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

5 Kalpasthāna

Based on witnesses K and H.

       
❈1 ❈2 ❈3 ❈4
❈5 ❈6 ❈7 ❈8

6 Uttaratantra adhyāyas 1-30, 31-44, 45-66

Based on witnesses K and H.

                   
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 ❈17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 ❈38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
61 62 63 64 ❈65 66 colophon      

Draft translation

Evolving draft translation of selected adhyāyas (updated weekly):

  • View PDF
    (use the “download raw file” button download at GitHub to fetch the whole file)

Diplomatic transcription of MS Kathmandu Kaiser Library 699

  1. Sūtrasthāna.
  2. Nidānasthāna. Missing from KL 699 except for part of the last adhyāya.
  3. Śārīrasthāna. Missing from KL 699.
  4. Cikitsāsthāna. Missing from KL 699 up to adhyāya 18.
  5. Kalpasthāna
  6. Uttaratantra

Journal and book publications

  • Wujastyk, Dominik, Jason Birch, Andrey Klebanov, Madhu Parameswaran, Madhusudan Rimal, Deepro Chakraborty, Harshal Bhatt, Vandana Lele, and Paras Mehta. 2023. On the Plastic Surgery of the Ears and Nose: The Nepalese Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā. Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing. https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1203.
  • Chakraborty, Deepro, Jason Birch, Dominik Wujastyk, Andrey Klebanov, Harshal Bhatt, Madhusudan Rimal, and Vandana Lele. 2021. “The Graphemes Ch and Cch in the Nepalese Script.” Academia Letters, November. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3954.
  • Birch, Jason, Dominik Wujastyk, Andrey Klebanov, Madhusudan Rimal, Deepro Chakraborty, Harshal Bhatt, and Vandana Lele. 2021. “Ḍalhaṇa and the Early ‘Nepalese’ Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā.” Academia Letters, October. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3733.
  • Birch, Jason, Dominik Wujastyk, Andrey Klebanov, Madhu Parameswaran, Madhusudan Rimal, Deepro Chakraborty, Harshal Bhatt, Devyani Shenoy, and Vandana Lele. 2021. “Further Insight into the Role of Dhanvantari, the Physician to the Gods, in the Suśrutasaṃhitā.” Academia Letters, August. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2992.
  • Klebanov, Andrey. 2021. “On the Textual History of the Suśrutasaṃhitā, (2): An AnonymousCommentary and Its Identified Citations.” In Body and Cosmos: Studies in Early Indian Medical and Astral Sciences in Honor of Kenneth G. Zysk, 110–139. Leiden, Boston: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438224_008.
  • Klebanov, Andrey. 2021. “On the Textual History of the Suśrutasaṃhitā (1): A Study of Three Nepalese Manuscripts.” EJIM: Electronic Journal of Indian Medicine 12 (1): 1–64. https://doi.org/10.21827/ejim.12.1.37385.