Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c8.38

c8.38

§ 9. Caraka :-In Chinese sources Caraka appears as the court-physician of the famous king Kaniska ( circa 100 A. D. ) whose wife he attended as an obstetrician in a difficult delivery. The Arabic sources also know Caraka as a medical author whose work was translated first from Indian into Persian and then (c. 800) from Persian into Arabic*. What Alberuni quotes from Caraka according to this translation, e. g. his relation to Agnivesa and the origin of Āyurveda*, agrees with our Caraka. According to the Indian tradition which Alberuni also knows, Caraka is the oldest author*. Vāgbhata, therefore, forms the compound *Carakamṛtau* ( not vice versa ). In Bhāvaprakāsa Caraka is a mythical figure, older than Dhanvantari—the physician of Gods, and also than Suśruta. The Prasthānabheda also mentions Caraka before Suśruta ( IS. 1.21 ). Hārita (§ 7 ) places Caraka, Suśruta and Vāgbhata who are also denoted as Vrddhatrayi, successively in the latter three eras. Outside the medical literature Caraka is three times cited by the grammarian Bhartṛhari who, according to I-tsing, flourished before 650 A. D.* The name Caraka reminds us of the old Vedic school of Caraka ( Cf. also *Kapisthala* Car 1. l. 9 ). Thus chronologically very little can be said against the identification of Caraka with Kaniska's court-physician.