Light on the Siddhasāra from the Jīvakapustaka: the Hapuṣādyaghr̥ta in Khotanese (JP 26) and its Indian sources

The Jīvakapustaka is a collection of Āyurvedic prescriptions from various texts. It is preserved in a Dunhuang manuscript in Sanskrit and Late Khotanese. The latter contains amplifications on methods of preparation, quantities of ingredients, and use of medicines. The source of the formula for the medicated ghee Hapuṣādyaghr̥ta in Jīvakapustaka 26 is Siddhasāra 9.14. This is clearly true for the Sanskrit text but not for its Khotanese version, which explicitly mentions pomegranate (drrą̄ ma = Sanskrit dāḍima). Pomegranate features also in the corresponding prescriptions of Caraka and Vāgbhaṭa. Accordingly: (1) the current interpretation of Siddhasāra 9.14 has to be revised so as to include pomegranate as an ingredient (Sanskrit amla‐ ‘sour’ is used as an epithet for amla-dāḍima‐ ‘sour pomegranate’); (2) the Khotanese Jīvakapustaka took into account oral Āyurvedic tradition drawing from teachings in various texts. In the case of the Hapuṣādyaghr̥ ta, pomegranate as an ingredient depends presumably on Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahr̥dayasaṃhitā, which circulated in Central Asia, as fragments of the work in Old Uighur and Sogdian confirm.