the testimonies of the Puranas have any historical worth, we can safely place him somewhere in the Satya Yuga, (age) at least in those dim centuries which immediately succeeded the composition of the Atharvan. Charaka, too. in connection with his discourse on the development of the foetal body has cited the opinion of Dhanvantari (I) on the subject (the same as promulgated in the Sushruta Samhita) & referred his disciples to the Dhanvantari school of surgeons (meaning Sushruta and his school) in cases where surgical aid and knowledge are necessary; this proves that Sushruta was before Charaka.
Sushruta as a Surgeon:—Sushruta was emphatically a surgeon, and the Sushruta Samhita is the only complete wrok we have which deals with the problems of practical surgery and midwifery. Almost all the other Samhitas written by Sushruta's fellow students are either lost to us, or are but imperfectly preserved. To Sushruta may be attributed the glory of elevating the art of handling a lancet or forceps to the status of a practical science, and it may not be out of place here to give a short history of the Ayurveda as it was practised and understood in Pre-Suhsrutic times if only to accentuate the improvements which he introduced in every branch of medical science.
Commentators of the Sushruta Samhita:—We would be guilty of ingratitude if we closed this portion of our dissertation without expressing a deep sense of our obligation to Jejjada Acharya, Gayadasa, Bhaskara, Madhava, Brahmadeva, Dallana and Chakrapani Datta, the celebrated commentators and scholiasts of the Samhita, who have laboured much to make the book a repository of priceless
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