Anatomy in ancient India: a focus on the Susruta Samhita.

This review focuses on how the study of anatomy in India has evolved through the centuries. Anatomical knowledge in ancient India was derived principally from animal sacrifice, chance observations of improperly buried human bodies, and examinations of patients made by doctors during treatment. The Vedic philosophies form the basis of the Ayurvedic tradition, which is considered to be one of the oldest known systems of medicine. Two sets of texts form the foundation of Ayurvedic medicine, the Susruta Samhita and the Charaka Samhita. The Susruta Samhita provided important surgical and anatomical information of the understanding of anatomy by Indians in the 6th century BCE. Here we review the anatomical knowledge known to this society. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Anatomy © 2010 Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

J Anat. 2010 Dec;217(6):646-50. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2010.01294.x. Epub 2010 Sep 30. Loukas M, Lanteri A, Ferrauiola J, Tubbs RS, Maharaja G, Shoja MM, Yadav A, Rao VC. Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, St George's University, Grenada, West Indies. mloukas@sgu.edu