Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c14.20

c14.20

The Indian rhinoplasty has acquired certain fame by its early appearance and its effect on the plastic operation of European surgeons (Carpue, Grafe, Dieffenbach, perhaps also Branca and Tagliacozza )¹. Although in the operations of Indian surgeons attested in the 18th century, the skin of the forehead was used for the nose reparation, the connection of the same with the old method using the skin of the cheek cannot be doubted². Haas explained Suśruta's description of the rhinoplasty as a maceration of a similar passage from Celsus (7.9) and pointed to a remark in Cakradatta's commentary on Suśruta according to which the whole Suśruta passage would be spurious (anārṣa)³. However, the description in Celsus has only a distant similarity with that of Suśruta, and according to Dallana "Jaiyyata, Gayadāsa and others" i. e. the oldest commentators recognised the passage as genuine⁴; its antiquity is also warranted by the parallel passages in AS, AHr containing many further details.