The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.22

c6.22

The name of Suśruta on the one hand and that of Ātreya on the other do not let us escape the legend. Suśruta, which signifies “one who has listened well”, may be studied in relation to the epithet bahuśruta, “one who has listened to a lot (of things)”, “an extremely learned person”. As the proper name of a person, this word appears only in the classical texts and in the Suśruta-saṃhitā itself. Ātreya denotes “a descendant of Atri” and Atri is a Vedic personage protected by the Aśvins and Indra.¹ He is one of those “Ancients” by whom human beings trace their link with the gods. In effect, hymn I, 139 of the Ṛg-veda says: “Dadhyañca, Aṅgiras the elder, Priyameda, Kaṇva, Atri, Manu have known my birth; these, the Ancients[and] Manu have known it. Their line goes back to the gods and our navels are in them.”² The legend of the transmission of the Āyurveda from the gods to human beings could find in the Vedic tradition no one more suitable than a personage who was not only the intermediary between the gods and men but also the special ward of medical gods and of the instructor god. Being too divine as he represented Agni³, he could not as well pass for the first human being who learnt medicine from the gods, as did his descendant.