Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/31

 (Áyurveda) is regarded as a secondary or subsidiary branch (upánga) of the Atharvan and as a direct revelation of the gods (Sútra: Ch. XXX. 8-9).

The Susruta even goes a step further and asserts that the self-existent (Brahmá) created Áyurveda, as an upánga of the Atharvan (sútra: I. 3.)

We shall now concern ourselves with finding the time of Charaka within approximate limits. The task is not a light one, and it is one of the most abstruse questions of Indian chronology.

M. Sylvain Lévi has recently unearthed from the Chinese Tripitaka the name of a physician named Charaka, who was attached as spiritual guide to the Indo-Scythian King Kanishka, who reigned in second century A. D. The French Orientalist would have this Charaka as the author of the famous Hindu medical work, specially as it would offer an easy explanation of the supposed Greek influence discernible in it.