A Concise History of Science in India c8.s2.t1.2

c8.s2.t1.2

The other two works now available as later redactions, respectively by Dṛḍhabala (eighth or ninth century A.D.) and Nāgārjuna (*c.* third century A.D.), of earlier works belong entirely to a different category. Both are erudite and exhaustive compendiums, incorporating and codifying the theoretical and practical knowledge of medicine and its contributory arts and sciences available at the times. The *Caraka* and *Suśruta Saṃhitās* were followed in later centuries by more sophisticated treatises, commentaries and medical encyclopaedias (which were largely based on materials obtained from the two earlier works), but they have retained their place during two millennia as the two most complete and representative works on *Āyurveda*. Most of our present knowledge of the extent and depth of Indian medical science is obtained from these two standard works.