Vanaspati: Plants and Plant-Life as in Indian Treatises and Traditions c6.t3.27

c6.t3.27

Those who hold to the Rig-Vedic² origin of the Science of life pointed out to the repeated mention of Rudra as the father of the Science of Medicine in the Rig Vedic texts (II. 7. 16). This view is echoed by later mythological literature, and the traditional association of Rudra with the healing science has been systematically maintained. Whatever that may be, the Atharvanic origin of the Science of life, the tracing of the genesis of the Charaka and *Suśruta* to the Atharva Veda seems to be warranted by facts. The divisions of the Science of Medicine as occurring in the Charaka and *Suśruta*³ are as follows :—