4. Surgery in the time of Vedas

The teachings of Vedas are the theoretical core of Ayurveda, the practice of medicine in India has also been influenced by the later spiritual traditions of India. The practitioners of Ayurveda the were also skilled surgeons, capable of plastic surgery on the face and other parts of the body. Already at the time of the Rgveda, surgeons seem to have been able to deal with battle wounds and fit amputees with artificial metal limbs. 34 Primitive sort of surgery is as old as warfare. The Aryan invaders of India had to wage fierce battle with the inhabitants of the Indus valley before they conquered them. During the wars, surgeons were frequently requisitioned to attend on the wounded. Thus in the Rgveda we read of the amputations of legs and the fitting with artificial limbs, enucleating of eyes, and extraction of arrow shafts from the limbs of the wounded. There are so many references in the Vedas regarding the remarkable surgical techniques of the celestial physicians the Aswin twins. When Vispala lost her leg in a battle, they made an artificial leg. with iron and fitted it to her. Asvin fitted iron legs to Vispala, daughter of the king Khala and made her fit for the battle. They conjoined the 73

severed body parts of Syavasya and gave him life. They gave eyes to the blind Rajaswa. They united the severed head of Daksa Prajapati with goat's head and gave his life. The severed head of Daksa prajapati was replaced with goat's head and he was given life. We read about the famous surgeons to the god, the Asvini Kumara, Dhanvantari recites an incident which occurred in one of the wars of the gods. Rudra cut off the head of Daksa. Then the gods. called on the twins to repair the damage and they successfully united the head to the trunk and restored Daksa to life. During those days there were three categories of vaidya (physicians), these were: Salya vaidya (surgeons), Bhisaks 35 (physician), Bhisaks Athatvans (faith cures). Salya vaidyas were considered specialists in the surgery. The ancient sages and Ayurvedic surgeons had very good 36 knowledge of the anatomy of body. 5° Various body organs also find their name in Vedas. Their structural anatomy has also been described in Vedas. They mentioned the number of bones. According to the Vedas human body contains 360 bones. 38 37 74

39 Surgery mentioned in the Vedas. Asvani kumaras, the twin brothers were the celestial physicians 40 and surgeons were extolled in 41 many hymns for their cures of disease and feats of surgery." It is believed that they were experts in the orthopedics. Medical Science was one area were surprising advances had been made in ancient times in India. Specifically these advances were in the areas of plastic surgery, extraction of catracts, dental surgery, etc., These are not just tall claims. There is documentary evidence to prove the existence of these practices. 42 The practice of surgery has been recorded in India around 800 B.C. This need not come as a surprise because surgery (sastra karma) is one of the eight branches of Ayurveda the ancient Indian system of medicine. The oldest treatise dealing with surgery is the Susruta Samhita (Susruta's compendium). Susruta who lived in Kasi 43 was one of the many Indian medical practitioners who included Atreya and Caraka. Hygiene played a basic role in surgical technology no less than 44 in medical art. The Hindu surgeons were instructed to wash their hands and nails very carefully, and never to open their mouths during an operation, lest the wound gets infected. 75

On surgery and treatment of diseases of eye, ear, nose and throat (salya tantra and salakya tantra) the following classical works were composed: Aupadhenava tantra, Aurabhra tantra, Vrdha Susruta tantra, Pauskalavata tantra, Vaitarana tantra, Bhoja tantra, Karavirya tantra, Gopura raksita tantra, Bhaluki tantra, Kapila tantra, Videha tantra, Nimi tantra etc. Unfortunately, none of these texts are available at present. Only quotations from these texts are available in some of the extant commentaries on Ayurvedic classics. All these works provide detailed-anatomical description of the human body. Our knowledge of human anatomy from Ayurvedic texts, at present, is imperfect not because they were not available, but because we have lost many books providing anatomical descriptions of human body and some others. which are available now do not not provide the correct information, as, during the course of history, they were either redacted, re-composed and wrongfully interpolated.