The History of Ayurweda

==History==
Ayurveda is a discipline of the [[upaveda]] or "auxiliary knowledge". It is treated as a supplement or appendix of the [[Veda]]s themselves, usually either the ''[[Rigveda]]'' or the   ''[[Atharvaveda]]''.
The samhita of the ''Atharvaveda'' itself contains 114 hymns or incantations for the magical cure of diseases.
There are various legendary accounts of the "origin of ayurveda", e.g. that the science was received by [[Dhanvantari]] (or [[Divodasa]]) from [[Brahma]]<ref name="Underwood&Rhodes(2008)" /><ref name="singhguide">{{cite book |title=Banaras Region: A Spiritual and Cultural Guide |last=Singh |first=P.B. |coauthors=Pravin S. Rana |year=2002 |publisher=Indica Books |location=Varanasi |isbn=81-86569-24-3 |page=31|accessdate=1 April 2011}}</ref><ref name=britannica>Dhanvantari. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 4 August 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/160641/Dhanvantari</ref> Tradition also holds that a lost  text  written by the sage [[Agnivesh]], a student of the sage [[Bharadwaja]], influenced the writings of ayurveda.<ref name="Thakara">{{cite book|first=Vināyaka Jayānanda|last=Ṭhākara|year=1989|title=Methodology of Research in Ayurveda|page=7|publisher=[[Gujarat Ayurved University]] Press|location=Jamnagar, India}}</ref>

There are three principal early texts on Ayurveda, all dating to the early centuries of the Common Era.
These are the [[Charaka Samhita]], the [[Sushruta Samhita]] and the medical portions of the [[Bower Manuscript]] (a.k.a.. the ''Bheda Samhita'').
The relative chronology of these texts is not entirely clear. The ''Charaka Samhita'' is often cited as primary; although it survives in a recension of about the 4th or 5th century, it may be based on an original written between 100 BCE and 100 CE, which would have predated the other two texts. The Sushruta Samhita was written in the 3rd or 4th century.
The Bower Manuscript is of particular interest because in this case the manuscript itself is ancient, dated to the early 6th century.<ref>The 1897 edition by [[A. F. R. Hoernle]] suggested a 4th-century date, but this was superseded by later studies, Dani, Ahmad Hasan. Indian Palaeography. (2nd edition New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1986); Sander, Lore, "Origin and date of the Bower Manuscript, a new approach" in M. Yaldiz and W. Lobo (eds.), Investigating the Indian Arts (Berlin: Museum Fuer Indische Kunst, 1987).</ref>
The earliest surviving mention of the name ''Sushruta'' is from the  Bower Manuscript.<ref name="WujastykXXVI" />  The medical portions of the Bower Manuscript constitutes a collection of recipes which are connected to numerous ancient authorities, and may be based on an older medical tradition practised during the [[Maurya period]], antedating both the Charaka and the Sushruta Samhitas.

The Bower Manuscript is also of special interest to historians due to the presence of Indian medicine and its concepts in Central Asian Buddhism. [[A. F. R. Hoernle]] in his 1897 edition identified the scribe of the medical portions of the manuscript as a native of India, using a northern variant of the [[Gupta script]], who had migrated and become a Buddhist monk in a monastery in [[Kucha]]. The Chinese pilgrim [[Fa Hsien]] (ca. 337–422 AD) wrote about the health care system of the [[Gupta empire]] (320–550) and described the institutional approach of Indian medicine, also visible in the works of Charaka, who mentions a clinic and how it should be equipped.<ref name="WujastykXV-XVI">Wujastyk, pp. XV-XVI</ref>

Other early texts, sometimes mentioned alongside the Sushruta, Chakaka and Bheda texts, are the [[Kasyapa Samhita|Kasyapa]] and the [[Harita Samhita|Harita]] samhitas, presumably dating to the later Gupta period (ca. 6th century). Ayurvedic authors of the 7th or 8th century include [[Vagbhata]]<ref name="Wujastyk224">Wujastyk, p. 224</ref> and Madhava.

Underwood & Rhodes (2008) hold that this early phase of traditional Indian medicine identified "fever (takman), cough, [[Tuberculosis|consumption]], diarrhea, [[dropsy]], [[abscesses]], [[seizure]]s, tumours, and skin diseases (including [[leprosy]])".<ref name="Underwood&Rhodes(2008)" /> Treatment of complex ailments, including [[angina pectoris]], [[diabetes]], [[hypertension]], and [[Calculus (medicine)|stones]], also ensued during this period.<ref name="Dwivedi&Dwivedi07" /><ref name="Lock836">Lock ''et al.'', p. 836</ref> [[Plastic surgery]], [[couching (ophthalmology)|couching]] (a form of cataract surgery), puncturing to release fluids in the [[abdomen]], extraction of foreign elements, treatment of [[anal fistula]]s, treating fractures, [[amputation]]s, [[cesarean sections]], and stitching of wounds were known.<ref name="Underwood&Rhodes(2008)" /> The use of herbs and surgical instruments became widespread.<ref name="Underwood&Rhodes(2008)">Underwood & Rhodes (2008)</ref>

The field of Ayurveda flourished throughout the Indian Middle Ages; [[Dalhana]] (fl. 1200), Sarngadhara (fl. 1300) and Bhavamisra (fl. 1500) compiled works on Indian medicine.<ref name="WujastykXXVI">Wujastyk, p. XXVI</ref>

The medical works of both Sushruta and Charaka were also translated into the [[Arabic language]] during the 8th century.<ref name="Lock607" />
The 9th-century Persian physician [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi|Rhazes]] was familiar with the text.<ref name="Rao">Ramachandra S.K. Rao, Encyclopaedia of Indian Medicine: historical perspective, Volume 1,  2005, [http://books.google.ch/books?id=QRvzRGn9QqkC&pg=PA94 94–98].</ref>
The Arabic works derived from the Gupta era Indian texts eventually also reached a European audience by the end of the medieval period.<ref name="Lock607" /> In [[Renaissance Italy]], the Branca family of [[Sicily]] and Gaspare Tagliacozzi ([[Bologna]]) are known to have been influenced by the Arabic reception of the surgical techniques of Sushruta.<ref name="Lock607">Lock ''et al.'', p. 607</ref>