Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s4.13

c6.s4.13

5. *Date of Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, and its Relation to Charaka and Suśruta.* The traditional author of the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* is Yājñavalkya, who is said to have flourished at the court of Janaka, the famous king of Videha, and contemporary of Ajātaśatru, king of Kāśī (Benares). The latter, the celebrated ruler of Magadha and Kāśī, was a contemporary of Buddha. His accession took place approximately in 491 B.C. Accordingly Yājñavalkya may be dated about 500 B.C.¹ The anatomical comparisons, quoted above, show that in his time both the medical schools of Ātreya and Suśruta were in existence, and that he possessed some knowledge of their respective theories on the skeleton. For he derived from Suśruta the allotment of seventeen bones to the breast (§§ 33, 34), Ātreya-Charaka counting only fourteen (§ 4); while he got the total of 360 bones of the skeleton from Ātreya, Suśruta having only 300. In his choice of particulars from the two systems, of course, he was guided by the requirements of his mystic treatment of the fire-altar. As to Suśruta’s surgical text-book, it may be noted that Yājnavalkya was a native of Eastern India, and that Indian surgical science, in all probability, took its origin in that part of India (§ 2, cl. 3).