Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c6.28

c6.28

The Vedic texts reveal to us the science in its rudimentary stage, while *Charaka* and *Suśruta* exhibit it in its full-fledged development, its practical consummation. We have no materials sufficient to show us in detail the processes through which the transition from the rudimentary stage of the science of which we get a picture in the *Atharva Veda* to the stage of its final development which we see in the *Charaka* and *Suśruta* took place, and we are left to vague conjectures and inferences. Only a hypothetical attempt based on warrantable evidences, can be made. Whatever may be the stages of its development, it is clear beyond all doubt that this useful science has not undergone any further progress since the time of *Charaka* and *Suśruta*. The later contribution on the subject, rich as it is in quantity, does not represent any improvement in quality, nor a single step of advance in the theoretical aspect of the science as science, and our attempt will necessarily be confined to a description of the direction taken by the science from its inception to its fullest development.