Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/17

 INTRODUCTION.

Sushruta :—His age and personality :— A few preliminary observations regarding the technique of the Ayurvedic system of medicine are necessary at the outset to correctly understand the aim and scope of the Sushruta Samhita. Who was Sushruta? When and where did he live and flourish? These are questions that would naturally suggest themselves to the readers of the following pages; but the}^ can only be imperfectly answered like all similar questions respecting the lives of our ancient worthies. In a country like India where life itself was simply regarded as an illusion, the lives of kings or commoners were deemed matters of little moment to the vital economy of the race; and all histories and biographies were looked upon as the embodiment of the flimsy vanities of life. Lives of saints and canonised kings had been made use of in certain instances as themes of national epics. But they were intended more to elucidate or enunciate the doctrines of certain schools of Ethics or Metaphysics than to record any historical fact or event. Authentic history we have none beyond chronicles of state events and royal names in some instances; and those which are usually found in the Sanskrit Puranas are strange combinations of myths and legends, which often contradict each other. Hence the utter futility of attempts to explain a historical fact by the light of a votive medal or tablet unearthed perhaps froM the ruins of one of Our ancient cities. Such an endeavour serves, in most cases, only to make the "darkness visible," and the confusion more confounded.