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Indian medicine has a long history. Its earliest concepts are set out in the
sacred writings called the Vedas, especially in the metrical passages of the
Atharvaveda, which may possibly date as far back as the 2nd millennium BC.
According to a later writer, the system of medicine called Ayurveda was
received by a certain Dhanvantari from Brahma, and Dhanvantari was deified
as the god of medicine. 
The period of Vedic medicine lasted until about 800 BC. The chief conditions mentioned are fever (takman), cough, consumption, diarrhea, dropsy, abscesses, seizures, tumours, and skin diseases (including leprosy). The herbs recommended for treatment are numerous. The golden age of Indian medicine, from 800 BC until about AD 1000, was marked especially by the production of the medical treatises known as the Charaka-samhita and Sushruta-samhita, attributed, respectively, to Charaka, a physician, and Sushruta, a surgeon. The Sushruta-samhita probably originated in the last centuries BC and had become fixed in its present form by the 7th century AD. Of somewhat lesser importance are the treatises attributed to Vagbhata. All later writings on Indian medicine were based on these works. |
