Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c8.54

c8.54

§ 12. Veterinary Science :— This branch of medicine, not treated in the text-books of Āyurveda, refers particularly to elephants and horses on which the king possessed a monopoly¹. Megasthenes informs of the treatment of the elephants with the insertions of milk for the inflammation of the eyes, with black wine in other ailments, with warm water and hog's flesh and butter for wounds². King Asoka (3rd Cen. B.C.) was proud in his inscriptions of the arrangement of animal hospitals (*Pasucikitsā*) in the whole of his empire, such as they are founded by the Jains at present³. King Buddhadatta of Ceylon (4th cen. A. D.) is reported to have maintained physicians both for his troops as well as for his elephants and horses⁴. In Pancatantra (5.79, Bühler's edn.), a dictum of Śālihotra on the treatment of burning wounds of horses with the fat of monkeys is adduced. Indian works on veterinary science appear to have been translated early in Tibetan and Arabic. In 1030 A.D. Alberuni quotes from an Indian book on elephant-medicine; a work on horse-medicine was alleged to have been translated into Persian in the 14th century, another one in the 17th century, and from that in English in the 18th century (by Earles, Calcutta 1788)⁵. *Hastyāyurveda* of Palakāpya is now available in print; it deals in four sthānas⁶ with difficult, easy and surgical diseases and the therapy of elephants. There is also Jayadatta's shorter *Asvavaidyaka* or *Śālihotraśāstra*, a treatise on horse-medicine in 68 Adhyāyas. *Asvacikitsā* of Nakula⁷ is another work on the same subject. The *Asvavaidyaka* is composed in later middle age, for opium is alluded in it; on the other side there exists a MS of 1424 A.D. There is also a Nepalese MS of *Asvacikitsā*⁸ written in 1364 A. D. The nomenclature and treatment of diseases (e. g. Kustha) is similar to other medical works. In a similar manner there is a *Vṛkṣāyurveda* on the care and diseases of trees⁹.