An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. I: Sutrasthanam — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907)

Forms of medicine: — Powders, lambatives, decoctions as well as medicated oils, Ghritas, confection and wines are the forms in "-hich, according to Sushruta, medicines should be given. The different di ugs such as roots, leaves, etc. should be culled in the seasons proper to each. Reclassified the soil into five different kinds for the purpose of growing drugs of different therapeutic properties. Even the virtues of different flavours and colours were ascertained with regard to their respective actions on the deranged morbific principles of the body.

Rasayanam : — The Ayurveda being the science of life and health, the holy Agnivesha, at the very commencement

Ixii , INTRODUCTION.

ot the th-erapeutical porticMi of his work, * has described several medicinal compounds, which improve general health and arrest the ravages of time. ' Theoretically speaking the sciehrce of the A3'urveda recognises no preordained limit to human fexistence. Life can be prolonged with the help of suitable medicines. By dint of observation and patient researches our Rishis devised maay such adjuncts which can rejuvenate an old man, and supply those vital elements to an old and exhausted human body, which ebb away with the progress of years. Hence, we find many rejuvenating medicines to have been prescribed for men in health which would arrest decay and guard against the approach of senility b}' increasing the fundamental vital principles of the body and preventing Vayu, Pittam and Kapham from being transformed into morbific diatheses.

Diet — "A good and proper diet in disease is worth a hundred medicines and no amount of medication can do good to a patient who does not observe a strict regimen of diet.'' Our A'jairveda, instead of being content with specifying the nature of diet in diseases in general, mentions the names of articles, which should, or should not be taken in ■^J any specific malady, judged by the light of their properties of aggravating Vayu, Pittam or Kapham. The dietic or therapeutic properties of a large number of articles of human consumption, as well as the chemical changes they undergo in the digestive apparatus of diflferent mammals, have been studied and analysed, and so we find in our physique, medical Samhitas, such injunctions that barleycorns passed undigested with _ the fceces of a cow or flwi^ii' J?^t[z^^^' ^^^n ^^' ^x w

Chaiaka Sanihit^t Chikitsrt Slli4nam Ch I,

)NTKuDUC'?ioN. > Ixiii horse, should foiiu the diet of 'a Prameha patielit * that the milk of a she-camel should be given to a patient suffering from a cutaneous aflFection, and that the flesh of any carnivorous beast or bird should be given to 'one suffering from pulmonary consumption and so ' on. It was a cardinal doctrine with Ayurvedic dietisls that the longing of a patieni for any particular kind of food in a certain disease, emphatically shows that his organism is in want of those elements which enter into the composition of the article offered. Hence elaborate dietetics were formulated, which cannot but be acceptable to the most fastidious patient. '

Therapeutics:— The exclusiont of salt and water from the food of an ascites or anasarca patient as laid down in our Samhitas shows that our Rishi possessed a higher chemical knowledge regarding the effects of organic matter on the human system than many of us are ready to accord to these pioneers in medical science.

Medical Botany;— After therapeutics comes the subject of Medical Botany. Sushruta divides the whole vegetable

Charaka Samhiti, Chikiisa Sthanam, Ch. \'I. 23. t The efficacy of such exclusion has been lately demonsU-ated by the researches of Dr. Benjamin Horniman (Lectures, Sanitarium, Park si. London.)

Charaka Chikitsha Sthanam Ch, XIIL ^bid Chap. 13.

Charaka Chikitsha Sthanam Chap, 1 2.

Ixiv ■ f INTRODUCTION.

kingdom into Vriksha, Gultlia, Vanaspati and Virudha. This classification has been minutely worked out in works on Hindu Botany where we find si!ich nice subdivisions as r Agravija (whose toplings are only planted), Mulaja (whose roots only are planted), Parnayoni, Skandaja, Vijaruha (germinated from seeds) ^nd Sannurudhaja. But the botany of / Sushrnta is more of the nature of a" Materia Medica than

/ a work on Botany proper, though sometimes he mentions the habitat and describes the foliage of certain plants so that they may be distinguished from others of a cognate species. , ^ The uses of metals and 'minerals for therapeutical purposes in India are as old as the Rigveda * itself. Sushruta describes the methods of preparing oxides, sulphates or chlorides of the six metals as the case may be. Mercury has been only once mentioned in the Samhita and then very vaguely too. Processes for the preparation of alkalis and the lixiviation of ashes are very elaborately described. Beyond these the chemical knowledge of Sushruta scarcely extends.