Sushruta Samhita – An awesome 2500 year old Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery!

 


The Sushruta Samhita is among the most important ancient medical treatises. It is one of the foundational texts of the medical tradition in India, alongside the Charaka-Saṃhitā, the Bheḷa-Saṃhitā, and the medical portions of the Bower Manuscript.

The Sushruta Samhita was composed after Charaka Samhita, and except for some topics and their emphasis, both discuss many similar subjects such as General Principles, Pathology, Diagnosis, Anatomy, Sensorial Prognosis, Therapeutics, Pharmaceutics and Toxicology.

The Sushruta and Charaka texts differ in one major aspect, with Sushruta Samhita providing the foundation of surgery, while Charaka Samhita being primarily a foundation of medicine.

The Sushruta Samhita, in its extant form, is divided into 186 chapters and contains descriptions of 1,120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources.

The Sushruta-Saṃhitā is divided into two parts: the first five chapters, which are considered to be the oldest part of the text, and the "Later Section" (Skt. Uttaratantra) that was added by the author Nagarjuna. The content of these chapters is diverse, some topics are covered in multiple chapters in different books

The Sushruta Samhita is best known for its approach and discussions of surgery. It was one of the first in human history to suggest that a student of surgery should learn about human body and its organs by dissecting a dead body. A student should practice, states the text, on objects resembling the diseased or body part. Incision studies, for example, are recommended on Pushpaphala (squash, Cucurbita maxima), Alavu (bottle gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris), Trapusha (cucumber, Cucumis pubescens), leather bags filled with fluids and bladders of dead animals.

The ancient text describes haemorrhoidectomy, amputations, plastic, rhinoplastic, ophthalmic, lithotomic and obstetrical procedures.

The treatise mentions various methods including sliding graft, rotation graft and pedicle graft. Reconstruction of a nose (rhinoplasty) which has been cut off, using a flap of skin from the cheek is also described. Labioplasty too has received attention in the samahita.

The Sushruta Samhita, along with the Sanskrit medicine-related classics Atharvaveda and Charaka Samhita, together describe more than 700 medicinal herbs. The description includes their taste, appearance and digestive effects to safety, efficacy, dosage and benefits.

A number of Sushruta's contributions have been discussed in modern literature. Some of these include Hritshoola (heart pain), circulation of vital body fluids (such as blood (rakta dhatu) and lymph (rasa dhatu), Madhumeha, obesity, and hypertension. The first mention of leprosy is described in Sushruta Samhita. The text discusses kidney stones and its surgical removal.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jain temple at Ranakpur

Image
The Jain temple at Ranakpur in Rajasthan honours Adinath, the first Tirthankar. I read about it in Kiran Nagarkar's novel Cuckold and made up my mind to make it the first halt in my next trip to Rajasthan. Here is how he describes it. 'The temple was built during the golden age of architecture in Mewar. .. At the extreme corner of the building are round bulwarks as at any fort except these are much shorter. Ranged across the entire plinth are enclosure walls that are really a series of miniature temples housing subsidiary luminaries from the Jain pantheon. Four beautifully proportioned central gateways interrupt the shrines on all four sides. It is impossible to gauge how stupendously large and complex the temple is until you get to the very heart of the edifice. And yet, that too is a limited and partial view for one has not yet climbed to the first and then the second storey. Jain saviours in the panels stand or sit, stiff and erect, compellingly directing one's attention...
Read more

Mṛcchakatika (मृच्छकटिका), The Little Clay Cart – A Sankrit drama par excellence

Image
  For reconstructing life in Ujjayini in my novel Yugantar, I relied on Mṛcchakatika  ( मृच्छकटिका ) , The Little Clay Cart . It is a ten-act  Sanskrit drama  created by  Śūdraka , a playwright of the 5th century CE. The play is set in the ancient city of  Ujjayini  during the reign of the King Pālaka, near the end of the  Pradyota dynasty  that made up the first quarter of the fifth century BCE. The central story is that of a noble but impoverished young  Brahmin , Cārudatta, who falls in love with a wealthy courtesan, Vasantasenā . Despite their mutual affection, however, the couple's lives and love are threatened when a lecherous courtier, Samsthānaka, begins to aggressively harass Vasantasenā. The drama is rife with romance, comedy, intrigue and a political subplot around the overthrow of the city's despotic ruler by a shepherd. The play is notable for its focus on a fictional scenario rather than on a classical tale or ...
Read more

Pallava architecture

Image
  While researching for my book on Rajaraja Chozha, being published by @Leadstart, I did some comparison of the architecture of stone temples between the Pallava and Chozha periods from narratives available in a few excellent publications on the subject. This was the time when architecture, art and painting reached a zenith. Towns and cities were mushrooming. New productive forces were being unleashed. The imagination of the craftsmen was taking full flight. Early temples were structures of brick and mortar, unable to withstand the ravages of nature. When the Pallavas in the time of Mahendravarman built rock-cut temples, that signified a big advancement. Within another two centuries, the Pallavas perfected the art of erecting structural temples of stone. The Kailasanathar temple at Kanchipuram, built in the late 7th century, is believed to be the first structural temple in stone built in  South India . Narasimhavarman II  (Rajasimha) started the construction and ...
Read more