Just after charka samhita sushrut samhita was written. The time difference between Charka and Sushrut is supposed to be 200 years. But the number of forms of medicines as well as their preparation is about the same only surgical part is different and the procedure that were involved in this were dependent upon the other measures of medicines that are followed commonly by both Charka and Sushrut. Even charka samhita advises about the surgical intervention in some conditions. That is known as shastra karma when the disease is beyond the scope of medicines. But the ever written text of surgery in ayurveda is Sushrut Samhita. The need of study the basics of Sushrut samhita is very much necessary to under stand the development of ayurvedic medicines and pharmacy. The effect of cultural environment is easily seen in the surgical text as it gradually disappears from the field.

The Sushrut samhita as we know is a surgical textbook of Ayurveda. In sushrut samhita all the focus is upon the surgical procedures. It has got all the necessary details about instrument, surgical procedure, preoperative, and postoperative measures. The majority of instruments that are used till date are somewhat modified form of the yantra (blunt instrument) and shastra (sharp instrument). The use of medicated decoction to heal up the wounds as well as prevent them from infection is the basic ideology of anti septic and anti biotic type of herbs in Ayurveda. The karna sandhana (building earlobe) ,nasa sandhan (building nose) and oshta sandhan (correcting lips) are the first examples of plastic surgery. It is because of this contribution that Sushrut is called as father of surgery.

The medicament or kalpanas found in sushrut are nearly the same but it also contained some of the kalpanas that are not found in charka samhita. This is due to that because sushrut samhita is focused upon surgical intervention. The vary basic developmental aspect that changed the pharmacy of Ayurveda is the drugs classification of Sushrut that made it possible that substitutes can be very easily selected as well as the combination of drugs is pharmacological action based. This suggested a new nomination culture for drugs as well as defined all the drugs in more effective manner. Another contribution that Sushrut made in development of ayurveda was dose fixation as per age. We will discus this topic in coming articles.

In Sushrut samhita mashi kalpana, kshaar parpat are described. On comparing the kalpanas from charka samhita a clear difference is observed that the medicated food preparation are more concise and specific type of advanced processing in seen as preparation of main medicine.

This fact lead us that sushrut was modifying the kalpanas. As he described the classification of drugs upon their pharmacological action like a class of antipyretic drugs named after the first drug in the list suffixed by ‘’adi’’ as Argavadhadi- Cassia fistula (Indian Laburnum) gana contains Laxative drugs .

But again the kalpanas are not very much exercised upon by sushrut, as it was a text of surgery. The most important discovery by sushrat was sandhan karma (Plastic surgery) and for that he is known as father of modern surgery. The kshaar parpat was a unique preparation by sushrut.

The kalpanas that are still in the world of Ayurveda pharmacy by sushrut are masi (unoxidized ash); kshaar kalpana (alkaline preparation) and he added the moongdal (a type of diet preparation made by to Indian cuisine. Apart from that a variety of meat preparation are also described in sushrut samhita. The surgery part gradually destructed as the influence of Buddhism spread over Indian culture. Their basic principle of ahimsa lead to the decay of surgical procedure as they involve the sharp cutting instruments as well as the blood is oozed. The Buddha followers take it as violence and they want it to be stopped at any coast. But the medicinal part flourished a lot as the mercuric preparations were developed at that time. The mineral based preparations changed the basic line of treatment as well as made the medicines more stable and effective.

The major development seen from charka to sushrut is that the aahar kalpana was condensed and new kalpanas like masi (unoxidized ash) and kshaar (alkaline preparation) were introduced. Yusha kalpana (various pulses) were developing. As we studies above the Buddhism influence made it possible to prepare the more complex medicines and surgical and instantaneous procedures were lost gradually. The basic form of mineral based ayurvedic preparations were developed at the time of Charka but they were used very frequently at the time of Sushrut.

Now we will see about how Vagbhatta categorized the knowledge by both Charka and Sushrut and added it to development of bhaishajya Kalpana. Up to sushrut any specific drug book is not observed.

References –

Sushrut samhita –By Anantarama Sharma published by Chaukhambha Surbharti Varanasi India

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