92 Dr. R. Mitra — Ancient Hindu Veterinary Art. [JuLY, 



or wrote any work abont tliem, nor cared to preserve tliem. Such 

 was, however, not the case in ancient times when Brahmans and 

 scholars were kings and ministers, and the horse was looked upon as a 

 vitally important element of a kingdom. Then, as a literary nation, 

 the Hindus wrote works on that subject, as on all other subjects which 

 engaged their attention. When the first attempt was made systemati- 

 cally to study the veterinary art, it was not easy to determine, but 

 there was every reason to suppose that it dated from a very remote 

 period of antiquity, when medicine for human ailments first attracted 

 attention. According to Greek tradition the oldest surgeon was Cheiron, 

 son of Kronos by the ocean nymph Philyra, whom Kronos metamor- 

 phosed into a mare to prevent his wife Rhea ill-treating her. Born 

 from the womb of a mare, Cheiron was a Centaur, According to some he 

 was a Thessalian prince of the 13th century B. C, and foster-father of 

 ^sculapius to whom he taught his art. According to the Vedas the 

 surgeons of the gods were the twin brothers Asvinikumara, who were 

 born of a mare. Bearing in mind the close relationship which Greek 

 mythology bears to Vedic traditions, it may safely be inferred that 

 there was an Aryan story current in Central Asia before the Aryans 

 separated into Greeks and Hindus, and that the stories of the Asvins 

 and of Cheiron were different versions of that original. This carried 

 back the date of the origin of veterinary art to a period of which 

 little was now known ; but it sufficed to establish the extreme antiquity 

 of the art among the Indians. The Asvins were described to have 

 taught the art of medicine to Atri and other sages, from whom it has 

 descended to us. The sages and their immediate followers do not 

 seem to have paid much attention to veterinary art, and there is no 

 tradition to show how the art taught by the Asvins was preserved. 

 It would seem that after a time the art was split into two parts, one 

 devoted to cattle, and the other to horses. Of the former the most 

 ancient and renowned professor was one Palakapya, who is frequently 

 noticed in the Puranas and elsewhere. The only work attributed to 

 him that Dr. Mitra had seen was a treatise on the training and treat- 

 ment of elephants ; but from the style of the work he suspected it was 

 of a much later date. In some modern MSS. the word is written 

 Palakavya, but that is obviously incorrect. For the second branch, 

 the earliest professor and author named was S'alihotra. Some say he 

 was a native of S'alatura, a town in the neighbourhood of Kandabar, 

 ancient Gandhara. The great grammarian Panini was a native of this 

 town, and hence his surname S'alaturiya. Some go the length of saying 

 that S'alihotra and Panini were names of the same person ; others identify 

 S'alihotra with Dhanvantari ; but Dr. Mitra could find no reason to 



