Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c22.s3: (c) Animals

Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c22.s3

Language: English

(c) Animals

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Animals have had an important place in the medicine, dietetics, economic life, fine arts and religion of the Hindus. The people have thus had experience of the life-habits, habitats, external characteristics, etc., of animals, both domestic and wild. This accounts for their intimate familiarity with the topics generally treated of in descriptive zoology.

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1\. Like the science of the diseases of plants, veterinary science also is very old in India. The Hindus had hospitals for animals in the third century B.C.

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2\. The Hindus could set fractures and dislocations in animals. They were perfectly acquainted with the anatomy of the goat, sheep, horse, and other animals used in sacrifices.¹⁹

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3\. They were specialists in the science of horses and elephants, the two animals important in warfare. Shalihotra is the founder of the science of horses, and Palakapya of the science of elephants. There is a vast literature on the subject.

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4\. Equine dentistry: The changes in the development and color of the six incisors of the lower jaw constituted, in Hindu practice, the guide to the age of the horse. This is modern European practice also.

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5. Snake-poison has been used as an article in Occidental materia medica during the last two or three decades. But it has been a recognized drug in India since early times.

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6. The toxicologists of the Sushruta school of medicine devoted special attention to the study of snakes. That study was followed up in some of the “Purana” schools.

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(*a*) Five different genera or families are described by Sushruta-Nagarjuna. Of these one is non-venomous, and the others are venomous. One of the venomous families is hybrid. The varieties of each are mentioned, as well as their longevity and other characteristics.

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(*b*) The “Bhavisya Purana” records that the snakes (*Naiæ*) copulate in May or June, gestate during the rainy months that follow, and bring forth about 240 eggs in November. Most of these are devoured by the parents, but those that are left break forth from the shell in about two months. By the seventh day the young snakes turn dark; in a fortnight (or twenty days, according to another account) the teeth come out. The poison is formed in the fangs in three weeks, and becomes deadly in the twenty-fifth night. In six months the snakes shed the skin. The joints on the skin (scales or scutes) are 240 in number (perhaps the sub-caudals were not counted).⁵⁹ 7. Various systems of classification were built up: (1) according to the nature of generation, e.g., from placentalia, or egg, etc. (in the writings of the schools of medicine); (2) according to the habitat and mode of life, and usefulness to man; (3) according to the number of senses possessed by animals. (This was the system of Umasvati, *A.D.* 40).⁵⁹

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8. The Sushruta-school names (1) six varieties of ants, (2) six varieties of flies, (3) five varieties of mosquitoes (including one marine and one mountain kind), (4) eight varieties of centipedes, (5) thirty varieties of scorpions, (6) sixteen varieties of spiders.⁵⁹

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9. Leeches have been used by Hindu surgeons since very early times. Sushruta gives a detailed account of their varieties, habits, mode of application, etc. There are twelve varieties of leeches, six of which are venomous and six useful. The venomous are found near putrid fish or animals in foul water. The good are found in clear deep pools which contain water-lilies.¹¹

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10. Ladyayana is quoted by Dalvana, the commentator to Sushruta, as a great authority on insects and reptiles. According to this ancient specialist, the various forms of insects are to be distinguished from one another by the following marks: (1) Dottings, (2) wings, (3) pedal appendages, (4) mouth, with antennæ or nippers, (5) claws, (6) sharp, pointed hairs or filaments, (7) stings in the tail, (8) hymenopterous character, (9) humming or other noise, (10)

Linked texts (3)

Suśrutasaṃhitā — Suśruta & Nāgārjuna (siddha/alchemist), Sanskrit
Bhaviṣyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Purāṇa — Sanskrit