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Tue Hindu medical science unfortunately received less attention from the earlier antiquarians than the other Indian sciences, and the facts collected even up to the present date are not nearly exhaustive. As early as 1823, Professor H. H, Wilson published in the Oriental Magazine a brief notice of Hindu medicines and medi- cal works. The indefatigable traveller and devoted scholar Csoma de Koros gave a sketch of Hindu medical | opinions as translated into the Thibetan language in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for January 1835. Heyne and Ainslie also collected much information on the subject of Hindu medicines. And in 1837, Dr. Royle of the King’s College, London, combined all the infor- mation available from the above works with many origi- nal researches of his own, in his celebrated essay-on the antiquity of Hindu medicine. Our distinguished countryman Madhusudan Gupta, who first broke through modern prejudices against dissection, and was Lecturer of Anatomy to the Medical College of Calcutta, edited the ancient work on Hindu surgery known as Susruta, and proved that the ancients-had no silly prejudices against the pursuit of science in a scientific way. Dr. CHAP. x.] MEDICINE. 383 Wise, late of the Bengal Medical Service, published in 1845 a commentary on the ancient Hindu system of medicine ; and later on he treated the subject ably and fully in his Review of the History of Medicine publish- ed in London in 1867. The subject has received more attention from our countryman since this date, and the patriotic physician, Abinas Chandra Kaviratna, is now editing valuable editions of Charaka and ausrats with commentaries. In Europe the antiquity of Hindu sqedicene: is not yet generally known and recognized, and the habit of tracing the origin of all Aryan culture to the Greeks still impedes an impartial inquiry. As Dr. Wise justly remarks, “ facts regarding the ancient history of medi- cine have been sought for only in the classical authors of Greece and Rome; and have been arranged to suit a traditional theory which repudiated all systems which did not proceed from a Grecian source. We are familiar from our youth with classical history, and love to recall events illustrated by the torch of genius and depicted on our memories; and it requires a thorough examina- . tion of a subject, a careful. weighing of new evidence, and a degree of ingeniousness not always to be found, to . alter early impressions. Still candour and truth require us to examine the value of new facts in history as they are discovered, so as to arrive at just conclusions.” * * Review of the History of Medicine, Introduction. 384 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. The Greeks themselves did not lay claim to the honour (which is now often claimed for them by modern writers) of originating ancient culture generally, or the science of medicine in particular. Nearchus (apud Arrian) informs us that “ the Grecian physicians found no remedy against the bite of snakes, but the Indians cured those who hap- pened to incur that misfortune.” Arrian himself tells us that the Greeks “when indisposed, applied to their so- phists (Brahmans) who, by wonderful, and even more than human means, cured whatever would admit of cure.” Dioscorides who lived in the first century A. D. is the most copious author on the Materia Medica of the ancients, and Dr, Royle has in an exhaustive inquiry shewn how much of his Materia Medica was taken from _the more ancient Materia Medica of the Hindus.*¥ The same evidence holds good with regard to Theophrasus who lived in the third century B. C., while even the physi- cian Ctesias who lived in the fifth century B. C. wrote an account of India which, Dr. H..H. Wilson has shewn, t+ contains notices of the natural products-of India. But _the chain of evidence is complete when Hippocratess called the “Father of Medicine” because he first culti-' ‘vated the subject as a science in Europe, is shewn to have borrowed his’ Materia Medica from the Hindus, We refer our readers for this evidence to Dr. Royle’s * Antiquity of Hindu Medicine. P, 82 to 104, f In a paper read to the Ashmolean Society of Oxford. CHAP. X.] MEDICINE. 385 excellent essay, “It is to the Hindus,” says Dr. Wise, “ we owe the first system of medicine.” Unfortunately, of the earliest system of Hindu medi- cine which was cultivated from the time of the Kurus and the Panchalas, (B. C. 1400—1200) to the philoso-{ phical age when ‘all Hindu learning was. raised to science, (B. C. 800 to 400), very little has been left to us. Ancient medical science is generally spoken of in later treatises as the Ayurveda. The word probably never meant any particular treatise or work, but was a collective name for ancient medical science, as -the Dhanurveda is a collective name for the ancient science of archery and arms, The ancient Ayurveda or medi- _ cal science is said to have been divided into the follow- ' ing sections or branches, bs we take from Dr. Wil-. ~ son’s analysis. (1) Salya, the art of extracting extraneous substances, like arrows, wood, earth, &c., with the treatment of the inflammation and suppuration thereby induced ; and by analogy, the cure of all phlegmonoid tumours and ab- . scesses, i ' (2) Salakya, the treatment of external organic affec- ‘tions, or diseases of the eyes,-ears, nose, &c. The word is derived from Salaka, a thin sharp instrument which must have been in use from ancient times. (3) Kéyd Chikitsé,the treatment of the body answer- ing to the modern science of medicine, while the two preceding sections constitute surgery. R. C.D, A. LHI 25 386 PAURANIK: PERIOD. [BOOK Vv, (4) Bhdta vidyd, or the réstoration of the faculties from a disorganized state supposed to be induced by demoniacal possession, (5). Kuméra bhritya, i. ¢., the care of infancy, compre- hending the management of infants and the treatment of disorders in mothers and nurses. “{6) Aagda, the administration of antidotes. (7) Raséyana or chemistry, (8) Bajikarana professing to promote the increase of the human race. - Medical science like all other sciences made consider- able progress in course of time, and exhaustive an’! scientific works were written after. the Christian era. But nevertheless with that loyalty to the past which has ever characterized Hindu writers, the authors of these later works alluded reverently to the earlier science under the collective name of Ayurveda, the gift of the gods ; and professed only to explain that ancient know- ledge and wisdom to thé fess favoured men of later ages. Among these later and more scientific works, those of Charaka and Susruta are the best known ; and their works are now the most ancient works extant. The dates of ] Charaka and Susruta have not been ascertained. The fame of their works had travelled into foreign countries, and the Arabs were acquainted with the translations of the works at the time of Haroun-al-Rashid in the eighth century A. D. One of the earliest of the Arab authors, Serapidr mentions Charaka by name as Xarch. Another — CHAP. X.] MEDICINE. ; 387 Arab writer Avicenna quotes him as: Scirak. While _ Rhazes who was prior to Avicenna calls him Scarac.* Charaka must have lived some centuries before his work was so well known and so often quoted in foreign coun- tries. It is probable that Charaka and Susruta lived early in the Pauranik period (about the 6th century A. D.), and that their works mark the revival of the Hindu medical science which was contemporaneous with the revival of other sciences at this very period. Charaka’s work is divided into eight books, which are enumerated below. (1) Séira Sthana, eiiniay the origin of medicine, the duty of the physician, the use of medicine, the cure of disease, materia medica, diet, &e. (2) Nidéna Sthdua, containing a description of dis- eases as fever, discharges of blood, tumours, diabetes, leprosy, consumption, mania and epilepsy. (3) Viwmdna Sthdua, treating of epidemics, the nature of food, the symptoms and diagnosis of disease, the use of medicines, anid the peculiarities < of the fluids of the body. (4) Sartra Sihdna, freating of the nature of the soul, conception, the varieties of species, the qualities of elements, a description of the body and the connexion of. the body and soul. : (5) Indriya Sthdua, describing the organs of sense and their diseases, the colour of the body, defects of speech, * Royle, p, 37. : oo 388 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK Vv: diseases of the body and of organs, loss of strength and death. (6) Chikitst. Sihdna, considering the treatment of disease and the means of improving the health and enjoying long life. It also treats of fever, dropsy, swel- ling, piles, diarrhoea, jaundice, asthma, cough, dysentery, ‘vomiting, erysipelas, thirst, and the effects of poisons. It speaks of remedying the effects of drinking, of inflam- mation, diseases of vital parts, abscesses, rheumatism and paralysis. ( 7) Kalpa Sthdna, treating of emetics and purgatives, and of antidotes and medical charms. (8) Siddhi Sthdna, treating of evacuating medicines, of injections for the urethra, vagina and rectum, of abscesses, of the use of clysters, of the vital parts, &c. The whole work is in the form of instruction imparted by the Rishi Atreya to Agnivdsa. We are told in the introduction that Brahma first imparted the Ayurveda to Prajapati, that Prajapatj imparted it to the two Asvins, and the Asvins imparted it to Indra. Bharad- vaja learnt it from Indra, and imparted it to six Rishis, of whom Agnivasa was one.