certainty that Subhuti was one of, the personal disciples of Sakya Sinha Buddha, and that it was customary amongst the contemporary Buddhists to append the appelation of their (i) lord (Gautama or Bodhisattva) to the "name of a proselyte to accentuate his wisdom and sanctity in the world. A certain section of scholars is never tired of setting up this line as a conclusive evidence of the fact that the Samhita was, at best, a contemporary production of early Buddhism. But they shut their eyes to opinions of Shaunaka and others on the subject quoted exactly in the same portion of the book, which places the date of its composition at least several centuries earlier. Shaunaka, who was the sixth in remove from the immortal Vyasa in direct line of discipleship, was the author of the renowned Shaunaka Samhita of the Atharvan. These facts lend a very plausible colour to our hypothesis that the original Sushruta Samhita which, was first composed perhaps contemporaneously with the latter portions of the Atharvan, naturally discussed the opinions of Shaunaka and other Vedic embryologists, while Nagarjuna, at the time of redacting that book, quoted the opinion of his contemporary Subhuti for the purpose of giving him an equal status with the Vedic Rishis, if for nothing else.
Greek Influence:—As regards Hellenic influence on the Hindu system of medicine and on the Sushruta Samhita in special, we must disabuse our mind of all sentiments of racial vanity and proceed to investigate the case in a scientific and unprejudiced spirit before giving a more detailed account of the contents of the Sushruta Samhita.
(1) Nagarjuna Bodhisattva was well practised in the art of compound-
ing medicine. N^gSrjuna Bodhisattva by moistening all the great stones with a divine and superior decoction changed them into gold. — Bael's Buddhistic Records of the western world Vol. II.
AnuvSk 19, 45. 46. 5.
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