Further to the idea about the mythical "three patanjalis", please, please everyone note that there is no medical Patanjali. There does not exist a major author of a medical treatise in Sanskrit who is called Patanjali.

If you wish to pursue the details, the name has been investigated in detail by Meulenbeld in his History of Indian Medical Literature (especially IA: 141-44, 196). As a person's name in medical literature, "Patanjali" lives a ghostly life as a name cited by others, as a legendary authority, as a person after whom recipes are named, etc. etc. Most of these occurrences are from the second millennium of our era, and after the first "three Patanjalis" assertion by Bhoja Deva. But even with these "Patanjali" whispers, it remains the fact that there does not exist an identifiable medical treatise by an author called Patanjali.

I'm sorry to shout. But it baffles me to see the continuing repetition of the idea that there was a medical Patanjali when there simply wasn't one. Never has been. Fake News!

Best,

Dominik

Professor Dominik Wujastyk

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity

Department of History and Classics

University of Alberta, Canada

South Asia at the U of A:

sas.ualberta.ca

On 15 May 2017 at 23:00, Ashok Aklujkar via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Not taking the subject specification above rigidly, I would like to make three points:
(a) Even in studying stories one should try to ascertain if they pertain to Vyākaraṇa Patañjali, Yoga Patañjali or ̄ Āyurveda Patañjali.
(b) The tradition of the identity of these three Patañjalis may be older than it is usually taken to be.
(c) In three interlinked articles published in the book mentioned below, I have made a case for taking the Vyākaraṇa Patañjali as a person belonging to Kashmir. I have also pointed out that the epithet Gonardīya (<— Gonandīya) definitely applies to this Patañjali and that the epithet Goṇikā-putra may also contain historical information about him. Much history can be gleaned if the stories are cautiously handled.

Aklujkar, Ashok. 2008. (a) “Pata~jali’s Mahābhāṣya as a key to happy Kashmir.” (b) “Gonardīya, Goṇikā-putra, Patañjali and Gonandīya.” (c) “Patañjali: a Kashmirian.” Pp. 41-87, 88-172 and 173-205, respectively in Linguistic Traditions of Kashmir, (eds) Kaul, Mrinal; Aklujkar, Ashok. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld.

a.a.

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