AyurvedGuru

That Caraka Merely Revised And Redacted An Old Treatise Dose Not Detract From His Greatness. The Ingenious Method Of Redaction He Adoped, Has Lent A Touch Of Freshness And Original; And Though Caraka Is Technically Only A Redactor, He Must Be Given Credit For Modifying The Old Work And Transforming It By His Magic Touch, Into A Work Of Unrivalled Merits, Which Has Stood The Test Of 2000 Years.

Thus We See That Atreya Samhita Was The Seed Which Was Watered By Agnivesa And Nurtured By Caraka. It Became The Medical Interitance Of The Race, Though It Underwent Changes. With The Accretions Of The Though And Experience Of The Succeeding Centuries. According To The Definition Of Redaction Given By Drdhabala The Redaction Adds Much That Is New And Deletes Much That Is Old. Viewing The Caraka Samhita In The Light Of This Definition, We Find That Caraka Has Contributed Much That Is Original.

1. The Theory Of Vada-Nyaya Found In Caraka Samhita Belong To That Stage Of Though Development To Which Belonged Carakas.
2. In Sudation Chapter Bhela Samhita Enumerates Only Eight Kinds While Caraka Adds Five More Bringing  The Total To Thirteen.

In Kasyapa Samhita Also We Find 8 Kinds. This Leads Us To The Conclusion That Old Works Knew Only Eight Kinds And That Caraka Has Contributed Five Kinds More. Palakapya In His Hasti Ayurveda Refers To Agnivesa’s Methods Of Sudation And There The Additional Kinds Of Sudation Are Mentioned. This Those Varieties Described In Caraka Samhita Are Caraka’s Own Contribution.

3.The Bhela Samhita Has Only One Chapter Caraka Has Also The Same Chapter Propounding A Similar Thory. But Later On In Caraka We Find A Chapter In Which The Suject Treated Showa An Unmistakable Flavour Of Latter Though Developments

Thus Caraka, Aithough He Is A Redactor Only, There Is Much That He Has Added As His Original Contribution And It Would Indeed Be Very Interesting Research Work For Scholars To Find Out What Execity His Contribution Was.

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