Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/39

 vain did the holy Narada (i) ^reacl] the gospd of plain living and high thinking, and exhort them, like Cato, to return to their simpl'e mode of life. The long peace brought opulence in its train and wealth begot indolence and disease. Men like Bharadvaja, Angira, Yamadagni, Atreya, Gautama, Agastya, Vdmadeva', Kapisthala, Asa- marthya, Bhargava, Kusliika, Kdpya, Kashyapa, Sharkara- ksha, Shaunaka, Manmathayani, Agnivesha, Charaka, Sushruta, Narada, Pulastya, Asita, Chyavana, Paingi and Dhaumya etc. began to write Samhitas. Each hermitage was a College of Ayurveda, and the empirical method of investi- gation was introduced into each department of the science of cure.

Anatomical Anomalies in the Samhita:—Having got so far in our analysis, before passing on to the study of the Anatomical portion of the Sushruta Samhita, we must try to account for the many anomalies and discrepancies that have crept into or have been suffered to remain in the present recension of the book. Take, for example, the line in which Dhanvantari is made to speak of three hundred bones in the human organism. It is impossible that the human frame, in so short a time, has got rid of so many of of its skeletal accessories simply through disuse, or because of their becoming superfluous in the altered condition of its environments. More absurd is it to think that Sushruta, who discards all authority except the testimony of positive knowledge, would write a thing which none but the blind would believe in a dissecting room. The spirit of the a^re ill which he flouri:>lied piecliided the possibility oT^ such an crrnr.

Anomalies accounted for: -In ancient India, subjects chosen for the demonstration of practical anatomy were always children (2), and naturally those bones, which are

(i) Vide Aitann'a Br5hmana VII. 13.

(2) The injunction of ihe Hindu Sllasiras is ihat '-corpse of persons more than 2 years old should he burned." Cremation of dead bodies bein"