(Silpakorn University)
From Central Asian Steppes to Suvarṇabhūmi Peninsula:
The Sanskrit Medical Cosmopolis in Aromatic Trade across Eurasia
68th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Bangkok 2026
This study investigates the circulation of camphor and asafoetida across Eurasia. The discussion positions the spread of these two aromatic commodities through the Sanskrit cosmopolis (a term coined by the indologist Sheldon Pollock), using etymological data and pharmacological texts as sources. The aim is to assess the role of Sanskrit as a scientific lingua franca that describes and classifies aromatic resins and their usage across radically different ecological and cultural zones, from Central Asian highlands to humid rainforests in Southeast Asia, i.e. Suvarṇabhuūmi. Common Sanskrit etymologies, karpūra and hiṅgu, as observed in Altaic and Southern Asian languages, will be compared.
The analysis points to two opposite directions of spread. An east-to-west trajectory is exemplified by camphor, whose etymon goes back to the Austronesian kapur ‘lime, white chalky substance’. Its usage later extended to the aromatic white crystals of Dryobalanops aromatica in Austronesian of the Malay Archipelago, eventually adopted as karpūra in Sanskrit Ayurveda texts (e.g. Siddhasāra) and as guobu (果布) in Archaic Chinese Shiji texts. Despite its broader spread reaching Europe through Arabic kāfūr with /f/, archaic forms with /p/, ultimately from Sanskrit, were attested in Old Uyghur kapir (via Sogdian kapur) and Classical Mongolian γabur (via Tibetan gabur).
Another west-to-east trajectory is illustrated by asafoetida, a resinous gum of Ferula species native to highlands spanning Iran, Afghanistan, and the Eurasian Steppes. Botanically, it has no natural presence in the tropical ecologies of Southeast Asia but was nonetheless integrated into local pharmacopeia and culinary practices through authoritative Sanskrit medical texts (e.g. Suśrutasaṃhitā), termed as hiṅgu while being adopted as inggu in Malay and spreading into Altaic languages, such as Uyghur hiŋ.
This cross-continental exchange in aromatic trade demonstrates that the Sanskrit cosmopolis has intellectually bridged regions where these aromatic commodities originate and where they were ecologically alien