Sankuka's Samhitasara: Edition and Translation of Verses 1-5, 75-85 and 129-154 with an Anonymous Commentary

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Abstract

Sankuka’s Samhitasara ("Essence of the Scriptures") is a unique Prakrit composition from the ninth century that draws on the now mostly lost Garuda Tantras, a medical genre of Saiva tantric scripture concerned with healing snakebite and other types of poisons and envenomations. Much of the surviving material related to the Garuda Tantras is difficult to date, but the larger part of it appears to be from the tenth–thirteenth centuries, making Sankuka’s text one of the earliest sources that discusses our topic in depth. It is also unique in that many of the verses have notable poetic value, in contrast to the lower register of aisa Sanskrit found in such important works as the Kriyakalagunottara. The text reaches us with a learned commentary that explains not only the nuts and bolts of the rituals, but also philosophical and spiritual layers of meaning inscribed in some of Sankuka’s verses.