Suśrutasamhita

Abstract

Suśruta is widely known as the author of the Suśrutasamhita, the authentic text of surgery in Āyurveda. Suśruta probably lived around sixth century BCE. At the same time his treatise Suśrutasamhita, the classical text of surgery, in its present form appears to belong to a much later date. This is a logical inference based on the subject matter of the text. The Suśrutasamhita in its present form is a huge text with 186 chapters arranged in six sthānas. The text is composed in a mixture of long and short portions in prose as well as in verses composed in various metres. The sthānas and the chapters are Sūtrasthāna, Śārīrasthāna, Nidānasthāna, Cikitsasthāna, Kalpasthāna, and Uttaratantra. Since the emphasis of the text is on surgery, a descriptive account of the various aspects of surgery is given including the surgical techniques, instruments and appliances, practical training, duties of the surgeon, battlefield surgery and so on. Among these, battlefield surgery is important since its emphasis is on the urgent medical services to be provided to soldiers for fatal wounds and other ailments. The rhinoplastic surgery as prescribed by the ācārya Suśruta continued to be practiced in India for several centuries. The surgical tools designed by Suśruta included one hundred blunt instruments and twenty sharp ones. The Suśrutasamhita lays down specific procedures for studying the science of surgery.