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Sushruta
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Sushruta was a surgeon and teacher of Ayurveda who flourished in the Indian city of Kashi by the 6th century BC. The medical treatise Sushruta Samhita—compiled in Vedic Sanskrit—is attributed to him. The Sushruta Samhita contains multiple detailed references to diseases and medical procedures.
ruta served as a surgeon in Kashi, where he practiced medicine and identified the treatment and origin of several diseases.
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Encyclopedia
Sushruta was a surgeon and teacher of Ayurveda who flourished in the Indian city of Kashi by the 6th century BC. The medical treatise Sushruta Samhita—compiled in Vedic Sanskrit—is attributed to him. The Sushruta Samhita contains multiple detailed references to diseases and medical procedures.
Life
Sushruta served as a surgeon in Kashi, where he practiced medicine and identified the treatment and origin of several diseases. The earliest literature of India is dated to before 1400 BC and Brahmic family of scripts appeared by the 3rd century BC. Greater diversity is visible in literary works during the 1st millennium BCE, which is when the medical treatise Sushruta Samhita makes its appearance. Sushruta's work was compiled by 6th century BCE. Sushruta is familiar with the religious text Atharva-veda[Kutumbian, page I] and his work finds mention in the Brahma?as literature, specifically Shatapatha Brahmana.
Contributions
Dwivedi & Dwivedi (2007)— on the work of the surgeon Sushruta—write:
The main vehicle of the transmission of knowledge during that period was by oral method. The language used was Sanskrit — the vedic language of that period (2000-500 BC). The most authentic compilation of his teachings and work is presently available in a treatise called Sushruta Samhita. This contains 184 chapters and description of 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources.
Though the contributions of Sushruta are mainly in the field of Plastic and Cataract surgery, a number of his other contributions to medicine are listed below:
Legacy
The earliest surviving excavated written material which contains the works of Sushruta is the Bower Manuscript—dated to the 4th century CE, almost a millennium after the original work.
The medical works of both Sushruta and Charak were translated into Arabic language during the Abbasid Caliphate (750 CE). These Arabic works made their way into Europe via intermediaries. In Italy the Branca family of Sicily and Gaspare Tagliacozzi (Bologna) became familiar with the techniques of Sushruta.
British physicians traveled to India to see Rhinoplasty being performed by native methods. Reports on Indian Rhinoplasty were published in the Gentleman's Magazine by 1794. Joseph Constantine Carpue spent 20 years in India studying local plastic surgery methods. Carpue was able to perform the first major rhinoplasty in the western world by 1815. Instruments described in the Sushruta Samhita were further modified in the Western World.
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