INTRODUCTION.

The original or Vriddha Sushruta must have been written at least two centuries earlier in order to acquire that ancient authority and established status of age, which alone could have justified a revision at the time. Several scholars, on the authority of a very vague and general statement concerning the revision of the Samhitá in Dallana's commentary, attribute the authorship of the Uttaratantram (the latter portion of the Sushruta Samhitá) to Nágárjuna. We, on the other hand, hold the Uttaratantram to be neither an interpolation nor a subsequent addition, but that it forms an integral portion of the book as it was originally written, though not planned by the Rishi.

In the first Chapter of the Sutrasthánam, Divodása formally divides the science of Áyurveda into eight subdivisions, such as the Shalya (surgery), Shálakya (the portion treating diseases restricted to regions above the collarbone, such as the eyes, etc.), and Káya-Chikitsá (general diseases such as fever, etc.), but he does not say anything about them in the first five Sthánas or subdivisions of the book. It is only once, in the 25th chapter of the Sutrasthánam, that he mentions the name of Netravartma (diseases of the eyelids) in connection with the classification of surgical operations.

It is impossible that Divodása would fail in his duties by omitting to give instructions on all the subdivisions of the Áyurveda as he promises at the outset, or that Sushruta would leave his Samhitá, which is pre-eminently a work on surgery, incomplete by excluding ophthalmic surgery, laryngotomy, or fever-therapeutics from his work. From the general plan of the book, we can safely assert that Sushruta dealt with easier or more elementary topics in the first five subdivisions of his Samhitá in the manner of our modern progressive readers, reserving the discussion of those requiring a more advanced knowledge and skill for the Uttaratantram. The Uttaratantram has not been included within the five original subdivisions of the Samhitá insofar as it embraces and more elaborately discusses