DNA Special: On National Plastic Surgery Day 2022, know about Maharishi Sushruta, the Father of Surgery

National Plastic Surgery Day is celebrated all over India on July 15 to celebrate the hardworking surgeons and their miraculous work that changes the lives of millions of people. On this day, let us know all about Maharishi Sushruta, who is called the Father of Surgery.

The doctors of AIIMS, Delhi have sent a proposal to the Department of Science and Technology, under which research will be done on Sushruta Samhita and during this research, the knowledge of Maharishi Sushruta and the relationship of modern-day medical surgeries, will be established. 

It must be noted that the mention of Ayurveda found in the Vedas was divided into two parts in the centuries to come.

The first was the Atreya sect - information related to this is found in the Charaka Samhita, in which different diseases are explained in detail. This famous Ayurvedic book was written by Charak. Charak is known as a Maharishi and Ayurveda Visharad. He was also the king of the Kushan kingdom.

The second section was the Dhanvantari sect. The information related to this is found in the Sushruta Samhita. More than 100 different types of surgeries and more than 650 medicines have been prescribed in this section.

Sushruta was one of the greatest physicians and surgeons of ancient India. He is also the pioneer of the great book of Ayurveda, Sushruta Samhita. The ancient surgeon is also called the father of surgery in India for his great expertise and knowledge on the subject.

It is believed that he was the one who performed the first plastic surgery about 2800 years ago. At that time, a man in Kashi had approached Maharishi Sushruta with a severed nose. Sushruta first took some part of the skin from this person's forehead. Then he understood the shape of his nose through the leaf and later put stitches and performed surgery on this person.

In a class 9 book of the Kerala State Education Board, Maharishi Sushruta has not been described as the Father of Surgery. Rather, it is written in this book that medical expert Abu Al Qasim Ahmad alias Al-Zahrawi is the Father of Surgery.

He was born in Spain in the year 936. Meanwhile, Maharishi Sushruta was born in 800 BC. That is, it happened about 1700 years before Al-Zahrawi. The unfortunate thing is that the children in Kerala are still being taught that the Father of Surgery was not Maharishi Sushruta but Al-Zah-Ravi.

The story of the first plastic surgery in India goes something like this. Thousands of years ago, a man approached Maharishi Sushruta with a severed nose. At first, Sushruta drugged the person - so that he would not have pain. He took part of the skin from his forehead - understood the shape of his nose through the leaf and made the nose with stitches and added.

It is also recorded in the Sushruta Samhita that Sushruta used 125 different surgical instruments. He used to boil different instruments like knives, needles, and tongs. There are 184 chapters of the Sushruta Samhita in which 1120 diseases are mentioned.

Maharishi Sushruta was an expert in 300 different types of surgeries, out of which ear and nose plastic surgery was his expertise. Apart from this, he also had the knowledge of childbirth from surgery, and anesthesia, i.e. the correct dose of sedation. Maharishi Sushruta used fruits, vegetables, and wax figurines to teach his disciples. Later on, he himself learned about surgery on the body and later passed this knowledge on to his students as well.

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