Kenneth G Zysk

Biographic Data

ID175079
NAMEKenneth G Zysk
GIVEN NAMESKenneth G
FAMILY NAMEZysk
SIGNATUREZYSK K G
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Copenhagen
ORCID0000-0002-3253-7676
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS54
TOTAL CITATIONS34
AUTHOR COUNT54
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1983
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX3

  • Ayurvedic Dissection

    Open AccessKenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEHistory of Science in South Asia2026

    his study critically examines the transmission of the Suśrutasaṃhitā, an ancient Indian medical text, focusing specifically on a passage describing human dissection. It traces this passage's evolution through various Sanskrit versions, from older Nepalese manuscripts and the Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha to later vulgate editions, highlighting linguistic and content changes over time. The analysis then explores the possible transmission of this dissection tech…

  • Early Indian Palmistry

    Open AccessKenneth G ZyskARTICLEHistory of Science in South Asia2025

    This paper offers a critical edition, translation, and notes to the chapter titled Pāṇilekhā or "the lines on the hands", from the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna. It represents an early Indian formulation of palmistry that entered the texts in the latter half of the ninth century CE. It presents thirty-four verses in varying metres, suggesting compilation from diverse origins and dealing with omens and prognostication. Notably, it incorporates astrological e…

  • Basham Medal Acceptance Address 2024

    Kenneth G ZyskARTICLEAsian Medicine2025

    The following is an edited version of the transcript of the author’s keynote address delivered on June 24, 2024, at the tenth meeting of the International Conference on Traditional Asian Medicine in Taipei, Taiwan

  • Three Versions of Crow Omens

    Open AccessKenneth G ZyskARTICLEHistory of Science in South Asia2022

    This paper examines three versions of crow omens composed in Sanskrit verses of anuṣṭubh metre from two different sources, one Brahmanic, Gārgīyajyotiṣa, and the other Buddhist, Śārdūlakarṇāvadana. Their similarities in language and content leave little doubt that they had a common source that was probably located in the northwest of the Indian sub-continent sometime around the beginning of the Common Era

  • Mesopotamian and Indian Bird Omens

    Open AccessKenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEStudia Orientalia Electronica2022

    This paper explores the relationship between bird omens that occur in both the Sanskrit Gārgīyajyotiṣa Aṅga 42 and the Akkadian Šumma Ālu and related Cuneiform tablets. After an overview of the Sanskrit omens and their source, the study proceeds to compare the Indian and Mesopotamian bird omens with special reference to the omens of the crow in order to show that the series of Akkadian omens and Sanskrit omen verses share a common conceptual para…

  • Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts

    Kenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…2022

    Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts: The Paṇḍit Collection. By Hartmut Buescher. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Nias Press, 2019. Pp. 1,040, illus. $275, £200

  • Doṣas by the Numbers

    Open AccessKenneth G ZyskARTICLEHistory of Science in South Asia2021

    This paper explores the origins of the Indian medical nosology involving the three doṣas from the perspective of its formulation into three or four distinct types. The essay compares similarities in passages from three different literary sources: Pāļi texts of early Buddhism, early Sanskrit medical literature, and Greek texts from the Hippocratic Corpus and the Anonymus Londiniensis. The study reveals that the tridoṣa-theory, common to āyurvedic …

  • From symposion to goṣṭhī

    Open AccessKenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEStudia Orientalia Electronica2021

    The symposion, a male social gathering that began in ancient Greece, was a social institution by and for men, hence a type of men’s society as we might understand it in modern parlance. Its manifestation on the Indian subcontinent has to date not been fully explored. In its original form, the symposion consisted of three main elements: alcohol, sex, and intellectual pursuits in the form of literature and philosophy, commonly understood by the pop…

  • Why Study Asian Medicine

    J S Alter, Judith Farquhar et al.ARTICLEAsian Medicine2021

    Asian Medicine is inaugurating a new type of article in this issue, the editorial forum. For our launch of this new format, an international range of scholars working on Asian medicine across different geographical, temporal, and disciplinary contexts were invited to respond to the question “Why study Asian medicine?” The perspectives they have expressed here reflect their diverse interests, motivations, and career trajectories across the spectru…

  • Greek and Indian Physiognomics

    Kenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…2021Cited by: 1

    The focus of this paper is the relationship between the Greek and Indian systems of physiognomics in antiquity. The study seeks to find similarities between the two geographically separated modes of thought and, as a result, to posit a plausible exchange of ideas about the human body as omen in antiquity, in which the flow of ideas went both ways between the Greek and Indian cultures in the ancient world

  • The Human Character Types in Ancient India

    Kenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEIndo-Iranian Journal2018References: 1

    This paper is a study of the transmission and assimilation of ideas and motifs in different types of Sanskrit literature in ancient India. I examine the classification of both male and female character types in three different Sanskrit literary genres: Jyotiḥśāstra, Āyurveda and Nāṭyaśāstra. The results of the study indicate that the list of male character types offered in the early Jyotiḥśāstra treatise of Garga ( Gārgīyajyotiṣa ) dating from th…

  • Müller, Reinhold F.G., Kleine Schriften zur traditionellen Medizin Südasiens

    Kenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskARTICLEIndo-Iranian Journal2009

  • The bodily winds in ancient India revisited

    Open AccessKenneth G ZyskARTICLEJournal of the Royal Anthropologica…2007Cited by: 2References: 1

    This paper examines the historical development of the doctrine of the five bodily winds (prāas) in the early Sanskrit literature of Yoga and Āyurveda. Special attention is paid to the Indian's understanding of the connection between atmospheric wind and bodily breath and the role of wind in the human body. The paper traces the evolution of the Indian concept of breath. Originally, wind and breath were used metaphorically to indicate life. Breath …

  • Potency Therapy in Classical Indian Medicine

    Kenneth G ZyskARTICLEAsian Medicine2005

    This paper examines the traditional Indian ideas about impotency, virility, and potency therapy as found principally in the Sanskrit medical treatises of Caraka and Suśruta. Included is a detailed discussion of the potency formulas and what they contain. The analysis of this material leads to six important conclusions: l. Caraka relies on a brahminic explanation of and justification for potency therapy, which is wanting in Suśruta. 2. The use of …

  • Conjugal Love in India

    Edwin Gerow, Kenneth G ZyskARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…2004

  • Conjugal Love in India

    Kenneth G Zysk, Kenneth ZyskBOOKConjugal Love in India2002

    The purpose of Ratiśāstra was to provide instruction and advice to young Hindu couples before and after they cohabit as a couple. The desired outcome of lovemaking has always been, according to Hindu law and custom, the production of male issues. Conjugal love or “Ratiśāstra” is the means to assure that auspicious result. Kenneth Zysk’s Conjugal Love in India is a study of traditional Hindu ideas about love in the domestic abode, and deals with t…

  • Taking Life Imprisonment Seriously

    Kenneth G ZyskBOOKTaking Life Imprisonment Seriously2002

    Life imprisonment is a complex and drastic penal sanction. It gives the State the power to curtail the liberty of offenders for the rest of their lives. In many jurisdictions life imprisonment is the ultimate sanction for the most serious crimes. It is frequently touted as an alternative to the death penalty. At the same time, life imprisonment is often imposed as a preventive measure, where the offence alone does not justify using the ultimate s…

  • Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit

    Kenneth G Zysk, David PingreeARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…1996

  • The Science of Respiration and the Doctrine of the Bodily Winds in Ancient India

    Kenneth G ZyskARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…1993Cited by: 5

    The following historical and philological study traces the science of respiration and the doctrine of the bodily winds through ancient Indian religious and technical literature. Basic notions about respiration and bodily winds appear in the literature of the vedic samhitas and brahmanas. By the end of the principal upanisads these early ideas begin to be codified into two separate systems. One, emphasizing a physiology of bodily winds, reaches it…

  • Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India

    Francis Zimmermann, Kenneth G ZyskARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…1993

    Since the first edition of Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India appeared, little new evidence has come to light to change the fundamental views offered in it. After carefully going through the text once again, I tried to clarify fuzzing points and elaborate on underdeveloped ideas. The importance of medicine in the history of Buddhism cannot be underestimated. This book lays out the basic tenets of a sophisticated medical doctrine and practice…

  • The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism

    Dale Riepe, Dale Maurice Riepe et al.ARTICLEPhilosophy East and West1992

  • Galle

    Kenneth G Zysk, Hella WellmerARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…1992

  • The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism

    Richard Salomon, A L Basham et al.ARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…1991

    The late A.L. Basham was one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient Indian culture and religion. Modeled on his monumental work The Wonder That Was India, this account of the origins and development of classical Hinduism represents a lifetime of reflection on the subject, and offers an intriguing introduction to one of the richest of all Asian traditions.Synthesizing Basham's great knowledge of the art, architecture, literature, and relig…

  • Health and Medicine in the Hindu Tradition

    Kenneth G Zysk, Prakash N DesaiARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…1991

  • The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism

    Anjali Pathak, Kenneth G ZyskARTICLEJournal for the Scientific Study…1991