Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c7.s2.16

c7.s2.16

There was probably another avenue of relief, perhaps rather than probably. Mutilation, blinding and beheading were common punishments as laid down by the Shariat. It stands to reason that some sort of remedy would have been sought to be applied in the case of persons who had lost a limb or the eyes. In India, the land of Charak, Shushrut and Dhanwantari, medicine and surgery had been in a developed state from ancient times. The art and science of surgery was widely practised even by some expert barbers, as for example, for doing circumcision of little Muslim boys and newly converted adults. Allama Abul Fazl and emperor Jahangir both write, but under the caption of magic and sorcery, whereby a man would be cut up in many pieces and then made to appear unhurt. Jadunath Sarkar in a footnote in the *Ain-i-Akbari* recounts the testimony of Ibn Battutah, Edward Melton, and many others about how dismembered limbs were joined together to form the living man once again.⁸⁰ Jahangir's *Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi* describes such a case of revival of a man.⁸¹