Ashtanga Hridayam
Madhava Nidanam
Rasaratna Samuchchaya
While in the initial stages, the pharmacopoeia of Ayurveda consisted mainly of plant and plant based drugs, this book, written in the 13th C., introduces the field of Alchemy into Ayurveda, and in the course of 30 chapters and 3871 verses describes 960 formulations of drugs that could be prepared to cure ailments which had mineral or metallic origins, throwing light on the expertise India had in extraction, purification and conversion of metals into suitable forms for the treatment of at least 68 different types of ailments. We can understand how vast Pandit Duraiswami’s scholarship must have been when we perceive his interest in translating such a technical book, in order that Ayurvedic practitioners could have as wide a variety of medications as possible from every area of research known to men of science.
Pillai Pani
When in 1940, the then Madras government found that all Ayurvedic literature in the fields of gynecology and pediatrics were scattered in handwritten and palm leaf manuscripts they decided to gather this extensive material in a book, which Pandit Doraiswami edited with his own notes added to it. This contains pre and post-natal care of the mother, treatment for infertility, recipes for the cure of childhood ailments as well as the best diet for an expectant mother as well as the child for its maximum growth.
Sarngadhara Samhita
In the 15th C., acharya Sarngadhara put together this Samhita, part of the minor triad of Ayurvedic texts, along with Madhava Nidana and Bhava Prakash. This book is divided into three parts, the first section containing details on weights and measures as well as the time and place to collect herbs, the second section exploring the methods of preparation of medications and the third section focussing on the five major kinds of treatments followed by Ayurveda (panchakarma). Pandit Duraiswami translated this work to enhance the scholarship of doctors who could not access the Sanskrit original.