History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c39.s5.9

c39.s5.9

The prevailing schools of medicine and surgery founded by Charaka and Susruta (circa 1st century A.D.), which were based on the Samkhya teaching with a methodology derived from the Nyaya-Vaiseshika doctrine, had formulated an elaborate theory of inorganic and organic compounds, which equally admitted *iso-bhautic* and *hetero-bhautic* combinations (*cf.* Charaka, Sarirasthana, Chap I, Vimanasthana, Chap. VIII.—also Susruta, Sarirasthana, Chap. I) Like the Vedantists, Charaka holds that each of the gross *bhutas* (*mahabhutas*) is a peculiar ultra-chemical compound of five original subtile *bhutas*. In this sense, every substance is *penta-bhautic*; but for purposes of chemical analysis and synthesis, *i e*, considered with reference to the *mahabhutas*, all substances in their chemical constitution belong to one or other of the following classes. *mono bhautic*, *bi-bhautic*, *tri-bhautic*, *tetra-bhautic* and *penta-bhautic*. Compounds of different *bhutas*, again, may combine to form more complex substances, and these in their turn unite to give still higher compounds, and so on in progressive transformation, as is more specially the case with organic substances and products.