Page:The materia medica of the Hindus (1877).djvu/11

 of this work it is said, that this tantra or scientific treatise was composed by Agnivesa and corrected by Charaka. A later writer Vágbhatta in his introduction to his Ashtanga-hridaya-sanhitá says, that that work had been compiled from the treatises of Agnivesa, Hárita, Bhela, Sásvata, Susruta, Kavala, and others. From this it would seem that the six disciples of A'treya, mentioned in Charaka, were not mythical beings, but authors of books, for two of them, namely, Agnivesa and Bhela are mentioned by Vágbhatta. It would appear also that at the time Vágbhatta lived, Agnivesa's work was not called by the name of Charaka, and Susruta had also been written. Hence it follows that Charaka's edition of Agnivesa, that is the work now called Charaka, was probably edited after Susruta had been written. A'treya is said to have lectured somewhere near the Himalaya, and his name occurs very frequently in the Vedas. His father Atri was a renowned sage, and the author of a law treatise which is current in his name. There is no clue to the nativity of Charaka, but Dridhabala, who added some chapters to his work, calls himself a native of Panchanada or the Panjab.* Susruta, on the other hand, is said to have been written in Benares. From the facts detailed above it is clear that the work called Charaka was composed at a very early age. I will not attempt to hit at the century before Christ in which it was probably written as it is a question which can be best discussed by professed antiquarians. I may notice, however, that the book is composed in an antiquated style and appears to have been written before the spread of the Puranic form of Hinduism, as the names of modern gods and goddesses do not occur in it, and the author does not, at the commencement of the work, offer his salutations to any mythological deity, as is usual with later writers. Beef was not then, apparently, a forbidden food, for Charaka speaks of it as an article of diet that should not be taken daily.