The Licchavi Suśrutasaṃhitā

Title: On MS Kathmandu Kaiser Library 699, the Licchavi Suśrutasaṃhitā. MS Kathmandu KL 699 has been the subject of international attention since the 2007 announcement in the Nepal Research Centre's Newsletter of its dating to the reign of the Licchavi monarch, Mānadeva IV, in 878 CE. KL 699 is the oldest known copy of this classical medical treatise. Studies by Harimoto, myself and, more recently, Klebanov, have studied this manuscript and its colophon. KL 699 manuscript is of twofold importance. First, it is a testament to the history of medicine in Nepal and to an earlier stage of transmission of the Suśrutasaṃhitā that we have had before. Second, the dated colophon gives us hard data on the dating of King Mānadeva and also sociological information about the scholars and physicians who were responsible for the creation of this manuscript. In this presentation I will outline some of the key differences between the Suśrutasaṃhitā of the ninth century and the received vulgate version in circulation today, I will explore the prosopography of the scribes and physicians responsible for creating KL 699, and I will propose a new suggestion about the location at which the manuscript was copied