The Bower manuscript; Facsimile leaves, Nagari transcript, Romanised transliteration and English translation with notes.

Dated to the Gupta era, between the 4th and the 6th century CE, the Bower Manuscript, preserved at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was written on birch bark in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit using the Late Brahmi script or Gupta script. The manuscript preserves one of the earliest treatises on Indian medicine (Ayurveda). The medical parts (I-III) may be based on similar types of medical writings antedating the composition of the saṃhitās of Charaka, SuÅ›ruta, and thus rank with the earliest surviving texts on Indian tradition medicine, or Ayurveda. A Sanskrit Index was published in 1908, and a revised translation of the medical portions (I,II,and III) in 1909; the Introduction appeared in 1912. For further information on this manuscript see HistoryofInformation.com at this link. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.