Sushruta

Without zero, without the decimal system, the entire development of mathematics and science would have been different.

Sushruta, another brilliant figure of the Gupta period, was a physician and surgeon.

He wrote the Samhita, an extensive Sanskrit text on Ayurvedic medicine, which is India's traditional medical system.

But Sushruta went beyond what was known at the time.

He wrote innovative chapters on surgery and described extraordinarily advanced surgical procedures.

He documented the use of various surgical instruments.

Huge.

Because we're talking about a man named Sushruta and the monumental text he left behind, the Sushruta Samhita.

Which is like the Holy Grail, right?

Basically, yeah.

Oh, it's massive.

Right.

So Sushruta lived and taught in Varanasi around 600 BCE.

And to give you some geographical and temporal grounding here, Varanasi is the oldest living city on Earth.

Right.

Sushruta was supposed to be one of the pioneers of rhinoplasty.

[laughs]

Mm.

Um, in addition to that, increasing the pungent flavor, so increasing additional black pepper, additional ginger, um, even like a little bit of cayenne into the person's food can help to induce sweating and also move the, the lymphatic fluid and move the breast milk.

So Sushruta, um, in the Sushruta Samhita, which Sushruta is one of the, um, main classical, um, authors of Ayurvedic texts, and his focus, his sampradaya or his school of thought was focused on, um, specifically surgery.

And so he, he has a, like, specific protocols for what should happen, um, before, during, and after therapeutic management, but specifically surgery.

So his recommendation is to eat light, easy-to-digest food in small quantities at regular times, and to slowly increase the density of rice gruel.

Um, but typically they were the last resort to save the baby, and oftentimes the, the birther, the mother, died, um, historically.

But they, uh, you know, since we've had modern surgical, um, technology, then there, the, uh, likelihood of maternal death is much less.

Um, Char- or Sushruta Samhita actually discusses how to have, how to do a cesarean in his text, and his text was written, you know, anywhere, like, 5,000 years ago.

Um, and I think that he had more awareness of, um...