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An English Translation
Of
The Sushruta Samhita
With
A FULL AND COMPREHENSIVE INTRODUCTION, ADDITIONAL TEXTS,
DIFFERENT READINGS, NOTES, COMPARATIVE VIEWS,
Index, Glossary and Plates
In Three Volumes
Edited by
KAVIRAJ KUNJALAL BHISHAGRATNA, m.r.a.s.
Vol. II.
NIDANA-STIIANA, S'ARIRA-STMANA, CIIIKITv^ITA- ^ .STIIANA AND KALArA-STIIANA.
CALCUTTA: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,
No. 10, Kashi Grose's Lane
I9ii *
AH Rights Reserved,
PRINTED BY M. BHATTACHARYYA, AT THE BHARAT MIHIR PRESS, 25, ROY BAG AN STREET, CALCUTTA.
MAY 3 0 ?oni
PREFACE.
It is with mingled feelings of pain and
pleasure that we now place before the public the
Second Volume of our English Translation of
the Susruta Samhita. The arduous task of com-
piling a connected and succint history of any
part whatever, of the ancient Hindu System
of Medicine — requires greater leisure and more
extensive reading than we can lay any pre-
tension to. Years of patient study and constant
discourse with our sainted preceptor the late
lamented Mahamahopadhyaya Kaviraj Dwaraka
Nath Sen, Kaviratna, that refulgent link of the
golden'' . chain of the Dhanvan^aric succession,
have enabled us, however, to grasp the leading
facts, and during' thje.Iast few years we have
worked contihutrusly^^n-moments snatched from
the practice of an anxious profession that knows
no respite, to arrange these facts in their present
form. It breaks our heart to record the sad
departure of our venerable Acharyya from this
sublunary sphere to a land 'from whose bourne
no traveller e'er returns.'*
It is hardly necessary for us to reply to those critics who, through their ignorance of the original
L^e.^^
Sanskrit works, persist in describing Ayurveda
as an empirical system destitute of Anatomy,
Physiology or Pathology in any scientific sense.
It behoves us, however, in this preface to meet
some of the charges which have been brought
against us.
Exception has been taken to our not includ-
ing in the opening stanza the usual invocation
to the Supreme Self (for a successful completion
of the work) although it has found its way into
almost all the printed editions of the work extant.
Now the stanza referred to finds no place in
the various manuscript copies of the original
work which are in our possession, or on which
we have been able to lay our hands. The work
was first put into print by the late Dr. Madhu-
sudan Gupta and we believe that it was only
in this printed edition that the benedictory
address in question appeared for the first time,
and that it has since crept, by the process of
circulation, into subsequent printed editions.
In this opinion we are supported by the fact,
that in none of the various commentaries and anno-
tations on the Susruta Samhita is any mention
made of the line in question, whereas, had it been
the opening stanza of the original work, it would
certainly have received at least a passing notice
at the hands of the commentators, however easy
or simple it might have been. Further, were it
composed by Susruta himself, it would not have
been in the form in which we find it in the printed
editions. The ancient sages used invariably
the auspicious expression "^^Tci:'^ or "^r^^''
and the like, when commencing a work and
never invoked any particular deity for a happy
termination of their undertaking."^ These are
the reasons which have led us to omit the
passage in our present translation.
Another objection raised by a certain section
of the community is that we should not have at
all undertaken to translate the work into the
English language. Their contention is that the
Ayurveda, being an integral portion of the
Eternal Vedas, should, on no account, be
rendered into a Mlechchha Bhdshd and thus made
accessible to the public at large, irrespective
of caste or creed.
Such an objection, at this time of the day, is,
to say the least, most puerile ! Truth is truth, and
latitudes and longitudes are not its boundary
lines. The Vedas themselves have been trans-
lated into many European languages. To keep
the truths promulgated by our ancient sages con-
fined within the coterie of the privileged classes
and thus to deprive the educated public of the
* Thus : —
'a) "^ram'f fi^^^f^ffl^T'^z^Ts asTTUmr^:"— Charaka Samhita.
(/;) *'^^T^ >^'W ^Ti^Mm:" — Kanada Vaiseshika Sutra
(^) "^^T^ ^^fsr^T^T"— Vedanta Sutra.
benefit of such truths would certainly be a
sacrilege. In giving preference to English as
the medium of translation we have been actuated
by more reasons than one.
It cannot be gainsaid that English has now
become almost the lingua franca of the world,
and to disseminate the ancient wisdom of India
throughout the world, we could not have selected
a medium better than the English language.
Besides this, we have been actuated by the
hope of drawing the direct attention of our be-
nign Government to the scientific value of our
system of Medicine by the adoption of such a
procedure.
Here we must not stop without expressing
our sincere and hearty thanks to our learned and
valued friends Kaviraj Jogindranath Sen, M.A.,
Vidyabhusana, Kaviraj Jnanendranath Sen, B.A.,
Kaviratna and Professor Satyendranath Sen,
M. A., Vidyavagisa, who have rendered us material
help in the publication of this volume. We must
freely admit that but for the active and continued
co-operation of the above-named gentlemen we
could not have brought out this volume so
promptly and successfully. Our thanks are also
due to Dr. S. Sanyal, B.Sc, L.M.S. for his kind
help, to Dr. S. N. Goswami, B.A., L.M.S. for
his kindly supplying us with materials for writing
the Introduction, and to our readers for their
kind encouragement
In conclusion, we implore our readers to
excuse the errors of omission and commission
which are inevitable in the execution of such a
huge work, more especially when the author is
encumbered with the responsible duties of his
profession involving, as they do, the life and
death of persons entrusted to his care.
10, Kashi Ghoshe's Lane,^
Calcutta. I KuNJA LaL BhISHAGRATNA.
November^ igii, '
INTRODUCTION.
In the introduction of the first volume of our translation
of the Susruta-Samhita we have attempt-
Ayurveda is not ed to place before the public a correct an Encyclopaedia .,^, _,. , „ .
of ancient medical interpretation of Vayu, Pitta and Kapha,
Mse on Biology!''^^^' ^^^ ^^^^^^^ so-called humours of the body* and it is a great pleasure to us, that our pronouncement has been very kindly accepted. In the introduction of the present volume we would draw the attention of the readers to the fact that Ayurveda is not at all an encyclopaedic work, — an Encyclopaedia of the Indian
* Berdoe says :— "What is known as the Humoral Pathology formed the most essential part of the system of the Dogmatics. Humoral Pathology explains all diseases as caused by the mixture of the four cardinal humours, viz., the blood, bile, mucus or phlegm and water. Hip- pocrates first leaned towards it, but it was Plato who devoloped it. The stomach is the common source of all these humours. When diseases develop, they attract humours. The source of the bile is the liver, of the mufcus the head, of the water the spleen. Bile causes catarrhs and rheu- matism, dropsy depends on the spleen."
Be it observed that among the humours of Hippocrates there is no place for Vata although in point of fact both his Physiology and Patho- logy are to be traced to the "Tri-dhatu" of Ayurveda. The secret of this anomaly is that the theory of Vata was found to be a complicated one and Hipprocates, not being able to comprehend its original import, left it out and cautiously introduced, in its stead, his own theory of "water". Sowe find "Humoral Pathology is not of Indian origin ; neither it is the same which the Indian Rishis of Rigveda developed under the name of Tri-dhatu." It is simply an imitation of Susruta who introduced blood ( ^[<!)ci-M<j^'i ) ^s the fourth factor in the genesis of diseases. Bui the bor- rower, in his interpretation of Susruta, had made a mess of it. He retain- ed blood, but substituted "water" in place of Vkta, the most important of the three, for reasons best known to him.
il INTRODUCTION.
system of Medicine in all its departments, but it is the Science of Life entire.
Though it is customary and convenient to group apart such phenomena as are termed mental and such of them as are exhibited by men in society, under the heads of Psycho- logy and Sociology, yet it must be allowed that there are no absolute demarcations in Nature, corresponding to them, and so in the entire Science of Life, psychology and sociology are inseparably linked with Anatomy and Physiology, nay, more, with Pathology and Hygiene and above all with Treatment. In short the Biological Sciences must deal with whatever phenomena are manifested by living matter in whatever condition it is placed. Life in health ( ^^5: ) as well as Life in disease ( ^:?irTf: ), therefore, fall within the scope of Biology— even life exhibited by man in Society ( f%cTTf%cf ) is not exempted from it.
f^cnficf ^Ji -^'MM^i^^f f%mf%cT^ 1
^^^ era ^5r^?TT#V. ^ ^'^ 11 '^T^, #^r^T, x^ ^'^m 1
In calling Ayurveda, therefore, the entire Science of Life,
Ayurveda, the "^^ ^'^ "°^ ^"'^^^ ^^ ^"^ prejudice
entire Science of of our own, but we rely solely on
^ ®* facts and figures, and these, when
closely studied, will lead any one to arrive at the same
conclusion, not unlike our own and to interpret Ayurveda
as a collection of Biological Sciences in all departments.
Ill the firs': place, for the guidance of our readers, we will
mention that the name Ayurveda itself is a strong evidence
in favour of its being called the Science Negative Eviden- ^r t -^^ o ji n c
ces thereof:— Of Life. Secondly, we will refer to
I. The Name it- (\^q arrangement of the subject-matter
in the Sarira-sthana which is popu- larly belived to be the anatomical portion of the book, as
tending to the same conclusion. In
II. The arrange- .. . . . .... .,
ment of the sub- this section, chapters on Midwifery
ject-matters. ^nd Management of Infants follow
close to the heels of those on Anatomy and Physiology, and
INTRODUCTION. iH
these latter again are immediately preceded by chapters on Psychology. This intermixture is certainly an anomaly and can in no wise be satisfactorily explained unless we have to look upon these as general truths of Biology, elucidated by the Introduction of special truths exclu- sively collected from the science of medicine — fviw^rrf^^ ^^T^ 4j»<[Mlciif*f I To. call it Descriptive Anatomy or Physiology, in the modern sense of the term is simply ridiculous. The absence of any reference to brain and
Want of Descrip- spinal cord, to pancreas and heart, in tive Anatomy and ^ > f »
Physiology in the a book of Anatomy and Physiology is
Ithlnaitself^-^"^^" unpardonable and in the Sarira-sthana we feel this absence almost to despon- dency. Moreover, in western medical science, Grey's Ana- tony and Kirke's Physiology, for instance, in their bulk, exceeds, each, more than a thousand of pages and to present to the public, under the same name less than half a dozen of pages, as the result of Indian wisdom, is certainly a very miserable contrast — a contrast that is calculated to inspire no admiration, but, on the contrary, to generate in scientific minds an universal apathy, at least an apathy towards all that is connected with the system of Indian Medicine. In order to save our venerable Rishis from this disastrous plight, we announce here foremost of all, that our beloved Science of Ayurveda is by no means an Encyclopaedic work, but distinctly possesses every characteristic ces°^'*'''® ■^'''^®''" that "^a^^s the Science of Biology. I The definition The very name Ayurvada indicates Same as Life as that it is actually a science of Ayus
same sense as Mr. Herbert Spencer understands by his remarkable definition of Life.
In liis masterly classification Mr. Herbert Spencer has, in his Biology, given, indeed, the first place to Anatomy and Physiology, but still it is divested of any elaborate chapters dealing with the subjects.
IV INTRODUCTION.
In the science of Life a short reference to the structures of the body or its functions is quite sufficient to illustrate its principles, and if we fail to find therein any discourse on the descriptive Anatomy and Physiology, we still consider that there is nothing amiss.
But unfortunately the fate of Ayurveda is otherwise. Though the very name indicates that it is Biology pure and simple, still it is denounced for its dificiencies in Anatomy and Physiology, and doomed for ever.
