Page:A History of the Indian Medical Service, 1600-1913 Vol 1.djvu/33

 CHAPTER II

EUROPEAN SURGEONS IN THE SERVICE OF ORIENTAL

POTENTATES

" To Agra and Labor of great Mogul."

Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XI, line 391.

During the seventeenth century, a number of European medical men found employment as Siu-geons or Physicians at the Courts of various Indian and other Eastern rulers. Among these pioneers of medical science in the East were men from several different nations — Britain, France, Italy, Holland.

One of the first, in point of time, was the Scotsman, George Strachan,* who served as Surgeon to the Arab Emir Feiad in Arabia Deserta, in 1615-1618. Others, however, have left less transient impressions on the sands of time, especially Bernier and Manucci,

Frangois Bernier was born on 25th Sept., 1620, and took the degree of M.D. at MontpeHer on 26th Aug., 1652.! He reached Surat towards the end of 1658 or early in 1659, and in March, 1659, entered the service of Prince Dara Shikoh, eldest son of Shah Jahan, as his Surgeon. Dara had already lost his throw for empire, when defeated at Samugarh, near Agra, on 8th June, 1658, by the troops of his brothers, Murad and Aurangzeb. In March, 1659, he was on his way to Sind, where he was betrayed, taken prisoner to Delhi, and there murdered on 29th Aug., 1659.

Bernier was in Delhi from July, 1663, to Jan., 1664/65, when he went in Aurangzeb's train to Lahore. In Dec, 1665, he travelled to Bengal in company with Tavemier. They parted company at Rajmahal on 6th Jan., 1665/66, Bernier going on to

■ 1 Bernier are taken from the Chronicle prefixed to his Travels
 * See Chap. VI, Early History, Surat, Persia, Bombay, and the West.

in the edition of 1891, Constable's Oriental Miscellany, Vol. I.