Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c5.16

c5.16

6. *Vāgbhaṭa I.* Vāgbhaṭa knew both Compendia, of Charaka and of Suśruta. He refers to both these medical writers by name, and quotes, or at least utilizes, their works. In his time Charaka’s Compendium was still incomplete, but Suśruta’s Compendium had already received its Supplement. This is particularly shown by Vāgbhaṭa’s treatment of the diseases of the eye, which are dealt with in Suśruta’s Supplement, while in Charaka’s incomplete work they are not described at all. Vāgbhaṭa wrote a Compendium on General Medicine, which, on the model of the Supplemented Compendium of Suśruta, he divided into six sections (*sthāna*),¹ and to which he gave the name of Summary of the Octopartite Science (*Aṣṭāṅga Saṃgraha*).² The name indicates Vāgbhaṭa’s object. It was to gather up into a harmonious whole the more or less conflicting medical systems current in his time, especially those contained in the Compendia of Charaka and Suśruta. In pursuance of this object he introduced, especially with reference to the diseases of the eye, many modifications in the classification and nomenclature which had hitherto been accepted in medicine. It also led him to the adoption of compromises—by no means always successful—of which, as the present dissertation will show, his exposition of the skeleton presents a conspicuous example.