Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.289

c16.289

**The Work of Medhātithi Gautama.** Besides *Tantra-yukti*, there is another early work on *Ānvīkshikī* attributed to Medhātithi Gautama of about the sixth century B.C., whose doctrines are embodied in the Charaka-Saṁhitā of Charaka, as also in the Nyāya-Sūtra of Akshapāda. According to tradition, it was Punarvasu Ātreya (*c.* 550 B.C.) who was the original author of the so-called Charaka-Saṁhitā or Āyurveda-Saṁhitā, and the name *Charaka* might be that of a sect [*Chārakāḥ*, according to Pāṇini, iv, 3, 107] or a physician who was the redactor of the Āyurveda Saṁhitā, as stated in the *Nyāya-mañjarī* [iv, 249], or the court-physician of Kanishka, as stated in the Chinese Tripiṭaka [Jolly, *Medicine* (Bühler’s Grundriss, iii, 10), p. 11]. While Charaka-Saṁhitā utilized the doctrines of Medhātithi Gautama in their crude forms, Akshapāda pruned them fully before incorporating them into the Nyāya-Sūtra.