Hi INTRODUCTION. 



plants. In Sushruta are recorded the properties and uses of some 

 700 of them ; but all of these were not indigenous to India. 

 Some foreign drugs were imported into this country. In ancient 

 times there was a trade in drugs between the Hindoos and other 

 nations. Liquorice, which does not grow in this country, was ex- 

 tensively used in Hindoo Medicine. It grows in Asia Minor 

 and Central Asia, and was brought to this country by the no- 

 madic tribes of Central Asia. We find mention of it in Charaka 

 and Sushruta. The majority, however, of the medicinal plants 

 in these works were indigenous to this country. Their pro- 

 perties were known by empirical means. Information regarding 

 them was gathered from hunters and shepherds. For this purpose, 

 physicians were enjoined to penetrate forests and climb moun- 

 tains. 



The works of Charaka and Sushruta appear to have been 

 composed in the pre-Buddhist period. The rise of Buddhism 

 gave an impetus to the study of medicine in ancient India. 

 The edicts of Asoka provided the establishment of hospitals at 

 all principal towns and cities of India for the sick and the 

 wounded. The Buddhist missionaries penetrating the dreary 

 wilderness of Siberia and Central Asia preaching the tenets 

 of benevolence and humanity to the savage tribes, also attended 

 to treating the sick and the wounded. They were in one 

 sense medical missionaries. The teachings of the Hindoo system 

 of medicine were also spread to the countries which adopted 

 Buddhism. The Buddhist missionaries brought with them 

 drugs of other nations to India, and thus enriched the materia 

 medica of Hindoo physicians. 



The Greek invasion was not without influence on the medical 

 practice of ancient India. The savants who accompanied the 

 army of Alexander learnt much of the metaphysical, philosophi- 

 cal, and medical systems from the Hindoos. The successors 

 of Alexander brought Greece and India into closer contact. 

 Commerce was established between the two countries. It was 

 thus that a large number of drugs of Central Asia and Asia 

 Minor found their way to India. Greek physicians also came 

 to know several medicinal plants of this country. As the Greeks 



