Composed in 1592, Nainsukh's Vaidyamanotsava is the first medical treatise in early Hindi. Nainsukh was a Jain based in Punjab; as indicated by the project's map, Punjabi Jains writing in early Hindi constituted an important centre of acticity for early modern vernacular medical literature in North India, and Nainsukh appears to be the inaugurator of this activity.
The Wellcome Collection possesses eleven manuscript copies of the Vaidyamanotsava, the earliest, from 1688, is featured on this site's front page. This wealth of copies invites future attempts at a critical edition of the Vaidyamanotsava. The perhaps most striking variation that arises from a more elementary study of these manuscripts concerns the identity of Nainsukh himself. In an introductory verse, Nainsukh refers to his family background. In the 1688 manuscript, the verse appears as follows:
वैद्यमनोत्सव नाम धरि
देषि ग्रंथ सुप्रकासि
केसराज सुत नयनसुष
श्रावक कुल हि निवास
This glorious book I name
The Celebration of Physicians!
I am Nainsukh, son of Keśavrāj,
a member of the lay Jain community.
In the manuscript transcribed below, however, which dates from the 19th century, the verse is slightly, but significantly, different:
वैद्यमनोत्सव नाम धरि
देषि ग्रंथ सुप्रकास
केश्रवराज सुत नयनसुष
जा के धर्म निवास
This glorious book I name
The Celebration of Physicians!
I am Nainsukh, son of Keśavrāj,
a paragon of virtue.
Here, Nainsukh's father's status as a Jain layman, a śrāvak ,has been replaced with a less specific reference to 'dharma'. Other late manuscripts also replace the line with similarly non-specific phrases. While it is tempting to speculate on reasons behind such changes, it is at this point worth simply pointing out that to some of the Vaidyamanotsava's audiences, it was desirable to gloss over the fact that its author was a Jain.
In the Vaidyamanotsava, Nainsukh draws on Sanskritic medical literature, especially the Carakasaṃhitā, a foundational work in Ayurvedic medicine. However, Nainsukh is not only a translator or compiler of the most ancient material. His opening description of how to diagnose diseases based on measurements of the pulse is taken straight from Śārṅgadhara's Saṃhitā, an early 14th century work, that too a compilation of earlier material. While crediting the Carakasaṃhitā as his main source, Nainsukh clearly includes more recent material as well, and at times even introduces wholly new diseases and treatments within the schemes established by his Sanskritic predecessors. This manner of introducing novel concepts while claiming traditional heritage is not at all unique to Nainsukh, but is rather a very common practice in early modern North Indian literature in general.
There are further similarities with other literatures from the period. The overwhelming majority of early modern North Indian vernacular literature is versebound, and the Vaidyamanotsava is no different. Nainsukh alternates between all the most common metres of the period, especially the caupai-doha combination popularised by the epic poetry of Sufi romances.
The following is a complete transcription of the Wellcome Collection's Wellcome MS Hindi 114.