Shushruta Samahita on Plastic Surgery

[sudheer birodkar]

Hello,

Medical Science was one area where advances had been made
in ancient times in India. Specifically these advances were in the areas 
of plastic surgery, extraction of catracts, dental surgery, etc.

The practice of surgery has been recorded in India around 800 B.C. This 
need not come as a surprise because surgery (Shastrakarma) is one of the 
eight branches of Ayurveda the ancient Indian system of medicine. The 
oldest treatise dealing with surgery is the Shushruta-Samahita 
(Shushruta's compendium). Shusruta who lived in Kasi was one of the many 
Indian medical practitioners who included Atraya and Charaka. 

Shushruta was one of the first to study the human anatomy. In the
Shusruta Samahita he has described in detail the study of anatomy with
the aid of a dead body. Shusruta's forte was rhinoplasty (Plastic 
surgery) and ophthalmialogy (ejection of cataracts). Shushruta has 
described surgery under eight heads Chedya (excision), Lekhya 
(scarification), Vedhya (puncturing), Esya (exploration), Ahrya 
(extraction), Vsraya (evacuation) and Sivya (Suturing). 

The above passages are extracted from a free site hosting the web 
edition of a book on the above subject. Visit it at the address:
"http://members.tripod.com/~sudbee/medicine.html"

Regards

Sudheer


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