Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/29

 Discrepancies accounted for:—Verses on medicine, hygiene, and surgery, etc. lie scattered throughout the four Vedas. Those having bearing on Medicine proper occur most in the Rigveda, and perhaps it was for this reason that Agnivesha, who was a physician, has ascribed the origin of the Ayurveda to revelations in the Rik Samhita. Precepts relating to the art and practice of surgery are found most in the Atharvan (i), which amply accounts for the fact of Sushruta's opinion of holding the Ayurveda as a subdivision of the Atharvan, as he was pre-eminently a surgeon himself.

Different kinds of physicians:—Vedic India, like Ancient Egypt, recognised the principle of the division of labour among the followers of the healing art. There were Shalya Vaidyas (surgeons), Bhisaks (physicians) and Bhisagatharvans (magic doctors), and we find that at the time of the Mahabharatam, which nearly approaches the age of our author, the number of the sects had increased to five which were named as Rogaharas (physicians), Shalyaharas (surgeons), Vishaharas (poison curers), Krityaharas (demon-doctors) and Bhisag-Atharvans (2).

In the Vedic age (before the age of Sushruta) physicians had to go out into the open streets, calling out for patients (3). They lived in houses surrounded by gardens of medicinal herbs. The Rigveda mentions the names of a thousand and one medicinal drugs (4). Verses eulogising the virtues of water as an all-healer, and of certain trees and herbs as purifiers of the atmosphere are not uncommon in the Vedas. Indeed the rudiments of Embryology, Midwifery, child management (pediatrics) and sanitation were formu-