Hindu Medicine c7.160

c7.160

The reverent tendency to rewrite faithfully what had been handed down and given authoritative form by the teachers of old made any systematic account impossible. But the lack of clarity in arrangement, an unavoidable shortcoming of early medical knowledge, is amply compensated by richness of detail and of general ideas; later authorities lack these virtues. In this respect Caraka is the most rewarding author among the Hindu classics of medicine; he exceeds Suśruta and Vāgbhaṭa by far in regard to the philosophic background of medicine and its interrelation with religious thought and the various aspects of Hindu spiritual life and ideals.