Charaka, well known as the Father of Medicine, has written the great book Charaka-Samhita.
Charaka lived around the first century. He was the court physician of the first century Kushana emperor Kanishka. He travelled continually and reached the patients wherever they were. Due to nobody know where he came from, he became famous as ‘the wandering physician’ or Charaka.
The Charaka-Samhita contains several chronological layers. The main body of the text presents itself as containing knowledge received by Agnivesha from his teacher, a sage named Atreya.
It seems that the medical system described in the work was known as the system of Agnivesha and that Charaka simply edited Agnivesha’s text.
Later on, in the 4th century A.D, a scholar by name Dridhabala again edited it.
Written partly in prose and partly in verse, Charka-Samhita has 120 chapters arranged into eight sections. The topics dealt with therein are of medical, social and philosophical importance.
Charaka-Samhita
