Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/45

 that even so early as the 5th century A.,D., the old Susruta had come to be regarded as of mythical origin, and that therefore it must have been composed many centuries anterior to that time. Several important recipes as given in the Bower Ms., e. g. those of the "chyavanaprása," "silájatuprayoga" (the doctrine of bitumen p. 53) etc., occur in practically identical recensions in the Charaka. This is easily accounted for. The Charaka, the Susruta, and the Bower Ms., and even the Ashtáṅgahridaya of Vágbhata have more or less a common basis or substratum. In order to understand this point more clearly it is only necessary to refer for a moment to the legal literature of the Hindus. The "Mánava Dharmasástra" or the Institutes of Manu, which still exercises a potent influence in the regulation of the social life of the Hindus, is by no means the ancient work that it pretends to be. Modern research has shown that it is only a recension, or rather a recension of a recension, of "Dharmasútras" connected with the Vedic Schools,