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

(3) ^cT' f^^^^ I

Rigveda. IX M» 112. ■>

(4) sifT* % ^m^ fm^ ^^'^g^f^TT. Rik.

XIV INTROgDUCTION.

lated in thecage of the Vedas i^nd Brahmanas, and we shall present^' see how from* these scanty- and confused materials Sushruta created a science and a Sanjhita which inv'ice the ddmirs^.ion of the world even after thousands of years of human prc*gress.

Origin of A'yurvedic Surgery : — In India, as in all other countries, curative spells and hewing mantras preceded medicine (i) ; and the first man of medicirte in India was a priest, a Bhisag Atharvan, who held a superior position to a surgeon in society. The first Aryan setLlements in the Punjab were often assailed by the dark aborigines of the country, and in the wars .that ensued surgeons had fre-' quently to attend to the Aryaa chiefs and soldiery. So in the Rigveda (2) we find that legs were amputated and replaced by iron substitutes, injured eyes were plucked out, and arrow shafts were extracted from the limbs of the Aryan warriors. Nay we have reasons to believe that many difficult surgical operations were successfully performed, thougli some of them sound almost incredible. But although the aid of surgery was constantly sought for, surgeons were not often allowed to mix in the Brahmanic society of Vedic India. This is hinted at by our author when he says that it was during the wars be tween the gods and demons that the Ashvins, the surgeons of heaven, did not become entitled to any sacrificial oblation till they had made themselves eligible for it by uniting the head of the god of sacrifice to his decapitated body. The story of the progress of Ayurvedic surgery is long and interesting, but it must suffice here to mention that with the

(1) Bedroe"s Origin of the Healing Art, and Sir John Lubbock's Prehistoric times,

(2) ^^ 5igi^i^?5l f^aj^i^^ait V% f|fIWfT% flsi^"*f' II

• « » * »

Rik Samhita I A. 8 Ad. 186 S. 116. 5.

INTRODUCTION. ' XV

' ' > '

return of peace, the small Aiynn settlements grew in number and prosperit}-. And the rich Ar3'an nobles now travelled in stately carriages, and as there were constant accidents ihere ■ arose a class of surgeons who exclusively devoted tlfemselves to the treatment of injured animals. The surgeons, now no longer required in camps and on battle fields, had to attend on the rich ladies at baronial castles during parturition, the magic doctor (Bhisag Atharvan) who could assuage fever and concoct lo\e potions (i) being held as the greatest of them all. But the Vedic Aryans had a regular armoury against pain and suffering, which is in no way inferior to our present day Materia Medica. But of that we shall speak later on in connection with the therapeutics of Sushruta.

The scope and nature of Sushruta's Surgery :- So rnuch for the history of Vedic Surgery. It is in the Su-

(shruta Samhita that we first come across a systematic method of arranging the surgical experiences of the older surgeons, and of collecting the scattered facts of the science ^fom the vast range of Vedic literature. Sushruta had no desire of abandoning the Vedas in the darkness and pushing en an independent voyage of discovery. The crude methods and the still cruder implements of incision such as, bits of glass, bamboo skins etc., laid down and described in the Samhita, may bj the relics of a primitive instrumentalogy which tiiund favour vviih our ancestors long before the hymnisation of any Rik verse. Practical surgery requires a good knowledge of practical anatomy. The quartered animals at the Vedic sacriiices afforded excellent materials for the framing of a comparative anatomy (2)'. Sushruta devoted his whole life to the pursuit of surgery proper, to

Rik Samhit5. X M. 145 S. i. (2) Vide .^itareya Br^hmana I, 2. II, i±. Ill, 37,

XVI • INTRODUCTION.