Sushruta (estimated to have lived around 600 BCE) is regarded as the father of Indian Medicine and Surgery.
His seminal book, the Sushruta Samhita or Sushruta’s Compedium is a Sanskrit text that covers diseases, medicines and surgical procedures. In a description spanning 184 chapters, Susruta lists the symptoms and causes of over a thousand diseases, over 700 medicinal plants, over a hundred preparations from minerals and animal sources. Significantly, the Susruta Samhita describes numerous surgical procedures including skin grafts, hernia, treatment of fractures, cataract removal and reconstruction of the nose. The Susruta Samhita was originally in Sanskrit and later translated to many languages including Arabic, Latin, German and English.
Susruta is also credited with establishing a medical training process that required six years of training before entering fields of surgery. Before the start of training, the students had to take an oath of dedication to healing.
Sushruta was born in and continued a Hindu tradition of healing that is mentioned in the Rig Veda through the Aswini Kumars, who were chief physicians of the Vedic period. These traditions were expanded by Charak, and later, by Susruta.
