Hindu Medicine c7.162

c7.162

Surgery as a medical skill must, however, be of a venerable age. It is called “Arrow” (śalya), for the reason that the arrow of the enemy, from primitive times, has been regarded as the most common and dangerous of foreign objects causing wounds and requiring surgical treatment. The arrow, not the sword or the spear, was the most common weapon in Hindu warfare of the Vedic period, the epic age of feudal chivalry, as well as of subsequent centuries.