Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld
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Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld (born 28 May 1928 in Borne, Overijssel[1]) is a physician-scholar who has taught and published major works of research in Indology. He has specialized in the history of Indian medicine (Ayurveda). Throughout his scholarly career he also maintained a practice as a psychiatrist.
Meulenbeld studied medicine and Indology in Utrecht. In 1954 he founded on psychiatry. Completion sixties he came back into contact with Indology . Immediately after receiving his doctorate Meulenbeld began to write the historical overview of the Indian medical literature. Since 1978 he worked as a research fellow at the University of Ghent and psychiatrist at the Van Mesdagkliniek in Groningen. In 1986 accepted a full-time job at the Mesdagkliniek when the Indian Institute of Languages and Cultures of the University was threatened with closure. There he worked until his retirement in 1988.
His major work, the five-volume publication The History of Indian Medical Literature (Groningent, 1999-2002) is of value for students of Ayurveda as well as those studying Sanskrit, Indian philosophy, anthropology and medical history. Meulenbeld's doctoral thesis under Prof. Jan Gonda was a translation of the first ten chapters of the Madhavanidāna, Sanskrit treatise on nosology, together with its Sanskrit commentaries, th Madhukośaṭīkā and the Āṭaṅkadarpaṇa. It was published in 1974, and reprinted in Delhi in 2008. The index of technical terms appended to Madhavanidāna translation is one of its unique features. The History of Indian Medical Literature covers a time frame of over two millennia; from the Vedic period to current early twentieth century. The text covers Sanskrit treatises as well as Pali and Prakrit works by Buddhists and Jains. It also covers some of the recent works in Hindi and also the Ayurvedic tradition of nearby island nation, Sri Lanka.
The scholarship of Meulenbeld is extended to our cyber space in the form of Annotated bibliography of Indian Medicine with more than 10000 entries. www.indianmedicine.ub.rug.nl and through the electronic journal on Indian medicine.
The Ayurveda community of India, during International Grand Centennial Convention organised by the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy bestowed the title Yavanacarya of Ayurveda on Dr.Meulenbeld.[2]
Paper of Prof Meulenbeld
History of Indian Medical Literature .Dr. G.J.Meulenbeld. Gorningen Oriental Studies No.15 Vol.1-3. MadhavaNidana -English translation with principal commentaries chapters 1- 10; G.J.Meulenbeld promotor Dr Jan Gonda 1974, Review of History of Indian Medical Literature of Dr G.J.Meulenbeld By Dr Dominik Wujastyk
