Gadadarpaṇa

Gadadarpaṇa (गददर्पण) is a concise treatise on Ayurveda dealing primarily with diagnosis and preliminary examination of diseases. The work opens with an invocation to Lord Dhanvantari and states that it has been composed by the physician Yajñadattācārya, described as Vaidyaśiromaṇi, for the welfare of people. The text emphasizes that a physician should examine the patient thoroughly before commencing treatment. Among the topics covered are Nāḍīparīkṣā (pulse examination), Mūtraparīkṣā (urine examination), Kālajñāna (determination of appropriate time and prognosis), and Rogatraya-parīkṣā. The work belongs to the domain of Ayurvedic diagnostics and therapeutics and reflects the traditional emphasis on clinical examination as the basis of successful treatment. According to the colophon, the text was composed by Yajñadattācārya, the son of Kāridāsa Sūri (Kāridāsa-sūnu). However, since the concluding folio contains readings that appear inconsistent with the preceding contents, it is possible that the last folio belongs to another manuscript, perhaps a Buddhist text, and was subsequently incorporated with the present work.