The Sushruta Samhita Describes Surgery, Including Rebuilding Noses

Preserved on palm leaves in an early Nepalese script, the oldest surviving manuscript of the Sushruta Samhita was completed in April 878 CE and rests today in the Kaiser Library in Kathmandu. Yet the medical traditions recorded across its leaves date back many centuries earlier. Ranked with the Charaka Samhita among the founding treatises of Ayurveda, the compendium stands apart in ancient Indian scientific literature for its attention to surgery. While other early Sanskrit compilations focused primarily on internal medicine, this work placed surgical intervention, operative techniques, and physical anatomy at the center of medical training.

The text presents its teachings through a legendary figure named Sushruta, who is depicted learning the art of healing from Divodasa, a ruler associated with ancient Kashi. Later tradition venerated Sushruta as a descendant or student of Dhanvantari, the mythical source of medicine. However, philological and historical research indicates that the treatise was not produced by a single hand. Much like the medical corpus attributed to Hippocrates, the text represents a layered accumulation of scholarship compiled and revised across several generations.