Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.153

c4.153

The science of medicine also was developed in India at an early date.¹ One of the great authorities was Charaka, and he is said by a Chinese authority to have been the court physician of the Buddhist King Kanishka in the first century of our era. Another great name is that of Suśruta, who lived about the fourth or fifth century A.D. It is probable that the development of medical science owed something to the influence of Buddhism, with its strong regard for the sacredness of life and insistence on the law of kindness. Through Arabic channels Indian medical science had a great influence on the subject as studied and practised in Europe in the Middle Ages, and even in the eighteenth century the operation of rhinoplasty was borrowed from India by European surgery. Hindu physicians are called *Vaidyas*, and *Āyur-Vedic* medicine, as it is named, is still practised in India.