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A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.s1: Persons called Suśruta and their identities

A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.s1

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Persons called Suśruta and their identities

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The Suśrutasaṃhitā presents a Suśruta who is the son of Viśvāmitra and a pupil of Kāśirāja Divodāsa Dhanvantari. Apart from this Suśruta, other persons of the same name are known from a variety of Sanskrit sources.

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A Suśruta who was the son of Subhāṣa is mentioned as one of the kings of Mithilā in the Viṣṇupurāṇa.¹ A quite unrelated Suśruta figures, together with his son Viśruta, in Daṇḍin’s Daśakumāracarita, which is a work of fiction.² More interesting is a Suśruta of the Mahābhārata,³ who is, like the Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā, described as one of the sons of Viśvāmitra.

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Important in the context of the discussions on the identity and date of the Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā is the occurrence of the compound sauśrutapārthavāḥ⁴ in the Gaṇapāṭha, belonging to Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī.⁵ This compound is elucidated in Kātyāyana’s Vārttika,⁶ the Mahābhāṣya,⁷ the Kāśikāvṛtti,⁸ and Jinendrabuddhi’s Nyāsa.⁹ The sauśrutapārthavāḥ are interpreted as the pupils of Suśruta and Pṛthu.¹⁰ A vārttika of Kātyāyana says that the Sauśruta is a work proclaimed by Suśruta.¹¹ Noteworthy too is the term kutapasuśruta, in the Mahābhāṣya,¹² and explained as denoting a sauśruta wearing the type of warm clothing called kutapa.¹³

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Four Suśrutas, connected with the medical science, make their appearance in texts not related to the Suśrutasaṃhitā.

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A Suśruta belongs to a group of munis, assembled in the Himālayas, in part I of the Bower MS. This Suśruta approaches a person called Kāśirāja with questions on the nature of a particular medicinal plant, which proves to be garlic. Another Suśruta is found in the Upāyahṛdaya, ascribed to Nāgārjuna.¹⁴ A third Suśruta, known to the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa, is described as the pupil of a Dhanvantari who was born in Kāśī as the son of the brāhmaṇa Kalpadatta; this Dhanvantari, an incarnation of Sūrya, composed a treatise called Kalpaveda, which became the model of Suśruta’s Sauśrutatantra, a medical work in one hundred chapters.¹⁵ A fourth Suśruta, regarded as the son and pupil of Śālihotra, the famous expert on horses, figures in several texts on aśvaśāstra.¹⁶

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A person, unrelated to the Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā, but yet sometimes identified with him, is the Suśrotar Medhāvin of the Bhelasaṃhitā.¹⁷

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Suśruta, as a medical authority and pupil of Dhanvantari, is mentioned in the Agnipuraṇa and Garuḍapuraṇa.¹⁸ Suśruta and Caraka are medical authorities in Śrīharṣa’s Naiṣadhacarita,¹⁹ while Suśruta is known as a medical expert in Ballālasena’s Adbhutasāgara²⁰ and Rājaśekhara’s Bālarāmāyaṇa.²¹ The claim of P. Rāy,²² that one of the Jā- takas is acquainted with Suśruta as a teacher in the university of Kāśī and as a younger contemporary of Ātreya, appears to be unfounded.

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A very large number of medical works refer to Suśruta or quote him.

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The connections between some of the Suśrutas referred to and the Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā constitute a controversial and vexed issue. The discussions in the secondary literature are complicated and sometimes confused by the distinction of two Suśrutas: an Ādyasuśruta, Vṛddhasuśruta, Suśruta I, or Suśruta the Elder, the supposed author of a Sauśrutatantra, and a Suśruta II or Suśruta the Younger, who rewrote that work, making it into the Suśrutasaṃhitā. Some scholars add to the difficulties by calling a later reviser, who may have added the Uttaratantra, Suśruta II or Suśruta the Younger.

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A survey of the views on Suśruta’s identity should include his father, Viśvāmitra.²³

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The Suśrutasaṃhitā itself contains a few passages mentioning father and son by name.²⁴ Viśvāmitra’s paternity with regard to the Suśruta who was a pupil of Dhanvantari is acknowledged in the Garuḍapurāṇa²⁵ and Bhāvaprakāśa, The latter treatise embellishes the story, telling that Viśvāmitra urged his son to travel to Kāśī in order to study there with Divodāsa Kāśīrāja, called Dhanvantari; Suśruta complied with his father’s request, taking with him one hundred sons of sages.²⁶

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The Vedic sage Viśvāmitra, already known from the Ṛgveda, is nowhere reported to have had a son called Suśruta, which did not prevent some scholars to regard him as Suśruta’s father.²⁷ The same applies to the Viśvāmitra of the Rāmāyaṇa,²⁸ who imparts to Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa the knowledge about divine missiles (divyāstra);²⁹ this Viśvāmitra, son of king Gādhi, ruled the kingdom of Kānyakubja for some time.³⁰ The Viśvāmitra of the Mahābhārata is by some seen as the proper candidate,³¹ or even identified with the Vedic sage and the Viśvāmitra of the Rāmāyaṇa.³² Noteworthy in this context is the tale about a quarrel between Viśvāmitra and Vasiṣṭha, incorporated in a chapter of the Kalpasthāna of the Suśrutasaṃhitā³³ as an explanation of the origin of spiders. This tale, not known from other sources, reflects traditions about Viśvāmitra absent from Vedic literature,³⁴ but found in the epics.³⁵ The Viśvāmitra figuring in the Kalpasthāna is still a king (nṛpavara) and has not yet acquired the status of a brāhmaṇa.³⁶

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The references in the Suśrutasaṃhitā itself suggest that the epic Viśvāmitra is thought to be Suśruta’s father. The later traditions, represented by Gayadāsa, Ḍalhaṇa³⁷ and Bhāvamiśra, are in agreement with this view.

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The assertion by an Indian author that Suśruta’s father was not the Vedic Viśvāmitra, but a person of the same name who lived in the period of the Upaniṣads,³⁸ does not contribute to a solution of the problem of his identity. Neither does the hypothesis that he was the Viśvāmitra who is quoted as a medical authority.³⁹

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The appearance of Suśruta as Viśvāmitra’s son in the Suśrutasaṃhitā may, in my view, be an expression of the wish to heighten the authority of the work by creating a genealogy connecting one of the protagonists with an ancient sage.⁴⁰ The same practice is characteristic of the Carakasaṃhitā.

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Many Indian authors⁴¹ are convinced that the sauśrutapārthavāḥ of the Gaṇapāṭha prove that the Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā was known in Pāṇini’s time. Such a claim is unfounded since neither this source nor the later grammatical treatises indicate that a medical authority is meant.42

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The Suśruta of the Bower MS, also often identified with the Suśruta of the saṃhitā,43 is remarkable on account of his association with Kāśirāja, but the context differs entirely from that found in the Suśrutasaṃhitā.44 The meeting of the sages takes place in the Himālayas, and, most importantly, surgery is not the subject of discussion. The conversation is about the properties of medicinal plants, and Suśruta makes inquiries about those attributed to garlic (laśuna). A group of verses, similar to the laśunakalpa of the Bower MS, expounded by Kāśirāja to Suśruta, is conspicuously absent from the Suśrutasaṃhitā.45

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The Suśruta of the Upāyahr̥daya is, according to Yādavaśarman,46 described as a physician (suvaidyaka) with an expertise regarding medicines (bheṣajakuśala), who enumerates as the six objects (bheṣajadharma) of the science of medicinal herbs (oṣadhividyā): their names, properties (guṇa), taste (rasa), vīrya, saṃnipāta, and vipāka.47 This Suśruta is, in spite of his being not a surgeon, sometimes identified with the Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā.48

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The Suśruta who, as a son and pupil of Śālihotra, became an expert on horses, is also by some regarded as identical with the surgical specialist of the Suśrutasaṃhitā.49 The reasoning employed in support is that Śālihotra was not actually Suśruta's father, but his guru, who addressed his pupil as son;50 more evidence is thought to be found in references to veterinary medicine in treatises on human medicine.51 Others are undecided on the identity of this Suśruta52 or consider him to be a different person.53

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The majority of the persons called Suśruta who have been discussed are distinct from the Suśruta of the saṃhitā. Exceptions are those mentioned in Bhāvaprakāśa, Bhaviṣyapurāṇa, Garuḍapurāṇa, Bālārāmāyaṇa, and Naiṣadhacarita.

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The Suśruta of the Suśrutasaṃhitā is not only depicted as a son of Viśvāmitra, but also as one of the pupils,54 actually the most important one, of Kāśirāja Divodāsa Dhanvantari, who, surrounded by a group of sages55 in his āśrama,56 answers questions on the art of medicine, in particular on surgery.

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The teaching takes place in one and the same hermitage throughout the Suśrutasaṃhitā, whereas, in the Carakasaṃhitā, Ātreya Punarvasu roams about the country.57 The location of this hermitage is not specified, which has led to speculations about the region where it may have been found.

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Hemarājaśarman58 supposed Divodāsa to have retired to some place in Northern India.59 He argued that the first of the two arrangements of the seasons, as found in the Sūtrasthāna (Sū.6.7 and 10), points to a northern climate, colder than that of Kāśī. His second argument is drawn from the Mahābhāṣya, where the sauśrutāḥ are characterized as people wearing warm clothing (kutapavāsas).60 Hemarājaśarman developed this theory because he was convinced that two Suśrutas should be distinguished: a Vr̥ddhasuśruta, author of a lost Sauśrutatantra, and a later Suśruta, who transformed this tantra and made it into the Suśrutasaṃhitā. The second, medical, arrangement of the seasons, regarded as agreeing with a southern climate,61 derives in his opinion from the later Suśruta.

Cites (21)