Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c26.6

c26.6

**Evidence of the Jātakas.** The *Jātakas* also furnish interesting evidence on the condition of Medicine and Surgery. There is a reference to a family of doctors in Benares who were specialists in the cure of snake-bites. The method of cure was to extract the venom with special antidotes or, catching the snake, to make it suck its own poison out of the wound [i, 311]. There is a reference to a skilled Brahman physician who cured the King of Benares of dysentery when all the great physicians of his court could not cure him. Before treating the patient, he said: "Tell me the symptoms of your disease and how it came about—what you have eaten or drunken to bring it on, or what you have heard or seen" [ii, 213]. There is a reference to Bodhisatta returning to Benares, his home, after mastering all branches of learning including medicine at Takkasīlā [iv, 171]. We may, lastly, refer to a skilled surgeon named Sīvaka who was called to root out the eyes of King Sivi. In the story, instead of piercing the king's eyes with the lancet and taking recourse to a surgical operation, he "pounded a number of simples, rubbed a blue lotus with the powder, and brushed it over the eyes till they came out" [iv, 408].