The Sushruta Samhita is an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery, and one of the most important such treatises on this subject to survive from the ancient world. The Compendium of Suśruta is one of the foundational texts of Ayurveda, alongside the Charaka-Saṃhitā, the Bhela-Saṃhitā, and the medical portions of the Bower Manuscript. It is one of the two foundational Hindu texts on the medical profession that have survived from ancient India.
Palm leaves of the Sushruta Samhita or Sahottara-Tantra from Nepal, stored at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The text is dated 12th-13th century while the art is dated 18th-19th century.
A statue of Sushruta (600 BCE) at Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in Melbourne, Australia.
A page from the ancient medical text, Susruta Samhita.
Some shastras (tools) and kartarika (scissors and forceps) mentioned in Sushruta Samhita
Sushruta is the listed author of the Sushruta Samhita, a treatise considered to be one of the most important surviving ancient treatises on medicine and is considered a foundational text of Ayurveda. The treatise addresses all aspects of general medicine, but the impressive chapters on surgery have led to the false impression that this is its main topic. The translator G. D. Singhal dubbed Suśruta "the father of plastic surgery" on account of these detailed accounts of surgery.
Sketch of Sushruta
Ancient poster by Sushruta, given in Sushruta Samhita showing surgical instruments, in which most of them still continue to exist today.
