The Hindus

Abstract

The main works which make up the body of Ayur Vedic medicine came from the oral tradition and were formed over a period of a thousand years, beginning 1400 BC. They were based on the theories of the breath, of the humours and of the constituent elements of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The most notable text is the Susruta (5th century AD), which is the great storehouse of Aryan surgery. This was, originally, a very different conception from the Chinese hypotheses, although later there was an exchange and interweaving of Chinese and Indian ideas. The golden age of Ayur-Veda medicine coincides with the rise of Buddhism (327 BC-750 AD) and the period of Indian expansion. Among Buddha’s attendants there were two doctors, Kasparja and Jivaka. The latter became a patron of Tibetan medicine, to whom remarkable operations were ascribed: laparotomy, thoracotomy and cranial trepanation, under anaesthesia by Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa). The Chinese pharmacopoeia borrowed from India: Indian hemp, datura, caulmoogra, sandalwood, cardamum (from Malabar), Indian camphor, cinnamon (from Ceylon), long pepper and cane sugar¹. The Susruta mentions 760 medicinal plants. The soporific effect of hyascyamus and Cannabisindica were known and had been used in surgical anaesthesia since ancient times. In the Ayur Veda there is also reference to sweet urine with a syndrome of burning sensation in the hands and feet².