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

Sushruta as a Surgeon : — Stishr'uta was emphatically a '•'igeon, and the Sushruta Samhiti is the only complete 'ok we have which deals with the problems of practi- )cal surgery and midwifer}'. Almost all the other Samhitas written by Sushruta's fellow students are either lost to us, lor are but imperfectly preserved. To Sushruta may be attributed the glory of elevating the art of handling a lancet or forceps to the status of a practical science, and it maj' not be out of place here to give a short history of the Ayurveda as it was practised and understood in Pre-^uhsrutic times if only to accentuate the improvements which he introduced in every branch of medical science.

Commentators of the Sushruta Samhita : — We would be guilty of ingratitude if we closed this portion of our dissertation without expressing a deep sense of our obligation to Jejjada Achiirya, Gayadasa, Bhaskara, Madhava, Brahmadeva, Dallana and Chakrapani Datta, the celebrated commentators and scholiasts of the Samhitd, 'ji'lio have laboured much to make the book a repository of priceless

(i) ^^i'f*T?fTiaTqKfH ^^^f^: I

Charaka, .Shariraslhiinam. Chap. \'.

I^Tt EfTcT^T^Tt ssit^'^^'I^^ II ' ">

Charaka, ChikitshSsth^nam. Chap. V.

xn • INTRODUCTION.

wisdom ancf experienge. D'allana has made use of all the commentaries in revising and collating the texts of .Sushruta Samhita.

Origin and History of the A yurveda : —In the science of medicine, as in all other branches of study, the ancient Aryans claim to have derived their knowledge from the gods through direct revelation. Su*shruta in his Samhita has described the Ayurveda as a subdivision (Upanga) of the Atharvan (i), while according to others the science of the Ayurveda has its origin in the verses of the Rik Samhita (2). Indeed the origin of the science is lost in dim antiquity. Death and disease there had been in the world since the advent of man ; it was by following the examples of lower animals in disease, that our primitive ancestors acquired by chance the knowledge about the properties of many valuable medicinal drugs. There is a verse in the Rigveda which shows that the lower animals were the preceptors of man in matters of selecting food stuffs and medicinal simples (3K Individual experiences in the realms of cure and hygiene were collected, and codified, and thus formed the bases of the present Ayurveda. The verses in the Vedas clearly mark each step in the progress of medical knowledge. The properties of a new drug were always hymned in a Vedic verse with a regularity which enables us to put our finger upon the very time when a particular drug of our Materia Medica first came to be of service of man (4).

(i) Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthanam. Ch. I. 3.

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Charana ^^•uha by \^y5sa.

(3) jitfwT^* ^w(f[ I ^?^^ «i» I ^^ I ^a.

(4) A. ipc: wii: ^gfi'?Tt^5Tifn It^r'^q^rd'T^ 1

Atharvan SamhitS U. Sec also Ibid I 2 II. 4. 7. 9. 25, 27 and 36.

INTRODUCTION. , Xlil

Discrepancies accounted' for : — Verses q\i medicine, hygiene, and surgery, etc. lie scattered throughout the four Vedas. Those having bearing on Medicine proper occur most in the Rigveda, and perhaps it was for this reasoT^i that Agnivesha, who was a physician, has ascribed the^origin of the Ayurveda to revelations in the Rik Samhitd. Precepts" relating to the art anu practice of surgery are found most in the Atharvan (i), which amply accounts for the fact of Sushruta's opinion of holding the Ayurveda as a subdivision of the Atharvan, as he was pre-eminentl}' a surgeon himself. Different kinds of physicians :— Vedic India, like Ancient Egypt, recognised the principle of the division of labour among the followers of the healing art. There were Shalya Vaidyas (surgeons), Bhisaks (physicians) and Bhisagatharvans (magic doctors), and we find that at the time of

{ the Mahabharatam, which nearly approaches the age of our author, the number of the sects had increased to five which

J were named as Rogaharas (physicians^ Shalyaharas (surgeons), Vishaharas (poison curers), . Krityaharas (demondoctors) and Bhisag-Atharvans (2).

In the Vedic age (before the age of Sushruta) physicians had to go out into the open streets, calling out for patients (3^ They lived in houses surrounded by gardens of medicinal herbs. The Rigveda mentions the names of a thousand and one medicinal drugs (4). Verses eulogising the virtues of water as an all-healer, and of certain trees and herbs as purifiers of the atmosphere are not uncommon in the Vedas. Indeed the rudiments of Embryology, Midwifery, child management (pediatrics) and sanitation were foimu-

(i) ciwT?^Tre5nf^=^=^ '^]'^T\^ ?^Tf*ni5iTW^M 1

Rik Samhitfi I M. 1 16-16. (2) MahAbhdratam. Shantiparva. Rajadharmanu^hashan Parv5dhydya.