Article ID: CBB945389139

Rasāyana and Rasaśāstra in the Persian Medical Culture of South Asia (2019)

unapi

In this article, I suggest that looking at the entangled issues of the creation of a new field of knowledge and the interaction with Others’ learning allows for a more accurate understanding of how Persian medical studies have developed and adapted to different natural and cultural settings during late medieval and early modern periods. This article studies the translation and reception of materials drawn from alchemy (rasaśāstra) and rejuvenating therapy (rasāyana) in the Persianate medical culture of South Asia. Chapters dealing with processed mercury and metals become a standard subject of Persian medical works written by Muslim and Hindu physicians in South Asia. Many of these works are in fact composite writings which combine Ayurvedic and Greco-Arabic materials. However, rasāyana is a branch of knowledge for which there is not a precise equivalent domain in the target culture. How does translation deal and negotiate with this asymmetry? In this study, I assume that cross-cultural translation implies a cognitive shift in the way different groups of readers may understand and classify a certain form of knowledge. I look at the Persian translation of materials drawn from rasāyana chiefly from the reader perspective which focuses on the hermeneutical and accommodation process through which translated materials are integrated into the target culture.

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Authors & Contributors
Wujastyk, Dagmar
Misra, Anuj
Dinges, Martin
Manohar, P. Ram
Maue, Dieter
Mukharji, Projit Bihari
Journals
History of Science in South Asia
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity
Indian Journal of History of Science
East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Technology and Culture
Publishers
Academic Press
New York University Press
Routledge
Steiner
Concepts
Medicine
Medicine, ayurvedic
Sanskrit
Translations
Alchemy
India, civilization and culture
People
Vagbhata
Time Periods
Ancient
Medieval
Early modern
17th century
19th century
20th century
Places
India
South Asia
Tamil Nadu (India)
Tibet
China
Germany
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