While surgery is common today, it was Rishi Sushruta who established its foundational principles and set guiding standards that continue to influence modern medical science.

Lineage of Rishi Sushruta

Rishi Sushruta was a distinguished sage from the 6th to 7th century India. He held a respected place among the rishis and belonged to a fascinating lineage.  

Lord Indra had bestowed the divine knowledge of medical science upon Dev Dhanvantri, a deity who emerged when Lord Vishnu was churning the oceans to restore balance between the good (devas) and the bad (asuras).

Dev Dhanvantri reincarnated as Divosada, the King of Kashi. The king had retained his knowledge of medicine from a previous birth and sought to spread the knowledge. As Divosada did not have any children of his own, he was eager to impart his divine knowledge to learners.  

Young students and sages approached him, and it was here that he found Sushruta, a young sage, who was most capable of learning and following the legacy of his divine knowledge

Rishi Sushruta becomes a practitioner of medicine and surgery

Rishi Sushruta started practicing the attained knowledge of medicine and made new findings. He established new procedures that became the basis of plastic surgery.

Interestingly, he was the first to perform plastic surgery on a person’s nose. In those days, it was quite common for people’s noses to be cut or slashed as a form of punishment for wrongdoing. He went ahead, performing the surgery, assisted by his own students, and reconstructed the nose.

Rishi Sushruta laid down the principles for surgery

In those days, the human body was considered very pious, and no one willingly accepted the procedures that Rishi Sushruta followed. No one wanted to have cuts or openings on their body.

Rishi Sushruta won their trust by recommending medicines (jadibuti) to ease their pain, and gradually, people approached him for medical relief.

Sushruta understood the anatomy of the human body like the back of his hand and prepared for any surgery by using heated wine to act as anesthesia.

The Sushruta Samhita.

Rishi Sushruta was an innovative soul. He wrote his thoughts, observations and findings in his book “Sushruta Samhita”.  

He gave hands-on training to his students. He made them practice cutting and stitching on skins of fruits, making them alert about not to tear the skin, as well not to merge their strands with each other. They progressed to doing the same on dead animal skin, and then gradually on human bodies.  

He made use of available resources, like heated smoke, salt, and homemade butter, as aids to perform the surgery. He was the first to emphasize the importance and necessity of heating (sterilizing) any equipment before using it for surgery.

In his book, he mentions the ideas of various surgical equipment meant for different surgical procedures, which have been adapted for today’s modern surgeries.

Glory to this amazing sage who, with his foresight and innovative thinking, gave  direction to future medicinal science.

Bhavisha Doshi

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