The Materia Medica of the Hindus, compiled from Sanskrit Medical Works c3.20

c3.20

These two works, namely, Charaka and Susruta mark the highest phase of development of the Hindu system of Medicine in ancient times. Their comprehensive character and superior merit probably led, in course of time, to the extinction of the manuscripts of authors who had preceded them. Succeeding writers and practitioners came to regard these works as of divine origin and beyond the criticism of man. Accordingly they dared not add to or amend what these ancient sages had recorded regarding the general principles of medicine and special pathology, but confined their labours to making better arranged and more compendious compilations for the use of students, and to explaining or dilating upon the texts of Charaka and Susruta, while in the matter of surgical practice, there has been a gradual decline in knowledge and experience till at the present day an educated surgeon of the Dhanvantariya sampradáya is a phenomenon unknown in Hindustan.