Traditional veterinary medicine in India : Other Sources

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Specialised treatises are not the only source of existing information. The treatises of the Âyurveda sometimes refer to veterinary treatments. Thus, a passage in Carakasamhitâ (Siddisthâna, XI, 20-26) contains a list of ingrédients for preparing enemas for elephants, camels, cattle, horses and sheep (26). A small collection of therapeutic formulae from the 11th century, the Râjamârtanda, contains a chapter devoted to the treatment of domestic animals (19). In addition, certain non-medical texts contain information on the veterinary art. Some information regarding veterinarians is contained in the Arthasâstra, a treatise of government traditionally attributed to Kautilya, possibly an adviser to Chandra Gupta (313-289 BC), founder of the Maurya dynasty. The Arthasâstra (II, 32) reveals that veterinarians accompanied armies to ‘treat the beasts weakened by travel, disease, work, rut or age’ (15). Veterinary medicine also features in a falconry treatise, the Syainikasâstra, which might have been written in the 15th or 16th century AD, and also in the Sivatattvaratnâkara, an encyclopaedic work of the 18th century. In the latter, Âyurvedic medicine and associated topics occupy some thirty chapters. Three chapters are devoted to veterinary medicine: a treatise on elephants and their medical treatment; one on horses and diseases of horses; and the third on the care of cattle and other domestic animals (27).

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