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A Short History of Ayurvedic Veterinary Literature
It is likely, in fact, that in the early days of the Aryan settlement in India,
veterinary surgery alone was practised. War was then the order of the day and
the extraction of arrows and the binding of wounds would then be the main
operations performed by the veterinarian upon the chariot horses of the army.
Later, as India settled down to a more peaceful existence, veterinary medicine
must have had more chance to develop, as with the increase in prosperity
(domestic animals constituting at that date the main criterion of wealth),
the health of livestock became a question of paramount importance.
The first literary evidence of the existence of a veterinary cult in India is
to be found in the Rigveda (2000-1400 B.C.). There is proof that, at that date,
medicine was already a recognized art and it is probable that at this time the
physician attended upon humans and animals indiscriminately. The medical
and surgical skill of these early doctors must indeed have been most primitive.
Their knowledge of anatomy was gravely inaccurate, and much of this em-
bryonic medicine might equally well be designated witchcraft, yet the begin-
nings of the art are undoubtedly visible at this remote period.
Lack of reliable chronology makes it difficult to trace the historical deve-
lopment of veterinary science thereafter, but the writer is of the opinion that
from Vedic times onwards there was a steady increase of knowledge, surgery
keeping the lead right up to the sixth century B.C. After this time religious
forces led to its decline, while Ayurvedic medical knowledge continued to
improve for some centuries thereafter, when it, in its turn, felt the atrophying
grip of caste.
It will be argued that the Atharvaveda (circa 1000 B.C.), a considerably
later production than the Rigveda, already shows signs of a deterioration in
medical science. The writer considers that altogether too much importance
has been attached to this book in the history of Indian medicine. Countless
writers have proclaimed it a repository of medical knowledge, a claim which
makes it difficult to believe that they can ever have read the work itself.
It is predominantly a collection of incantations, spells and charms ; and the
writer has been led to the conclusion that it represented the superstitions and
beliefs of the lower orders of society, adhered to even while scientific medicine
was being developed by the intelligentsia. It is noteworthy that Charaka him-
self states that his hospitals and knowledge were available only to the rich ;
while we ourselves know how, even today,' old wives ' remedies remain current
among the uneducated.
The contention that the development of surgery in India occurred in pre¬
Buddhist times is based on the following historical facts. Up to the times of
Buddha (sixth century B.C.), the prevailing ethical code was based on the Laws
of Manu (900 B.C. ?), which say that by mere ' bathing a man may purify
himself after touching a dead body'. This made the study of anatomy
permissible to the intellectual castes. Animal sacrifices, also, were general,
and the teacher was wont to lecture on comparative anatomy to his students
on these occasions, and the students to practise 'evacuation on the urinary or-
gans of the dead animals, scarification on their hides, venesection on their vessels
and extraction by the removing of their teeth '. Thus it was possible to acquire
the necessary basic knowledge for the practice of surgery. Buddha, however,
forbade the killing of animals for any purpose whatever, prohibited any form