Charaka Samhitā
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The Charaka Samhitā is one of the early ancient texts of Ayurveda. Ayurveda was first described by Agnivesha[citation needed] (believed to have lived between 2BCE and 2CE) in his book Agnivesh tantra, which was later revised by Charaka. As a result the book is now known as the Charaka Samhitā. A Kashmiri Pandit Shri Dridhabal is believed to have re-edited and re-constructed the Charaka Samhitā in the 9th century.[citation needed]The Great Medical Conference
The Charaka Samhitā begins with a description of a large and well-attended medical conference of veteran Rishis and Munis (sages) that was held under the chairmanship of Bharadwaja in the valley of the Himalayas. The description is attributed to Atreya Punarvasu, one of the devoted students of Bharadwaja. He tells us that the main aim of this conference was to share medical knowledge and to encourage the attending scholars to compile the medical knowledge gained by different peoples of the region, knowledge which had been passed down, mostly orally, from generation to generation. This stream of Ayurvedic medical knowledge was considered eternal, because it was known by them to have been there since the beginning of time. However, the participants also knew that there were no authentic and complete texts of Ayurveda available for study. For this reason the writing of texts became the focus of the conference.
This historic conference was a milestone in the history of medicine. The task of compiling the medical knowledge was very difficult, because many scholars who knew various aspects of Ayurvedic medicine lived and worked throughout different parts of the Eastern world. Travel and communication in those days was very difficult. Nonetheless, the participants of the conference overcame these difficulties. They arrived from many distant points and stayed together for a long period of time. The conference is estimated to have lasted about three years. The participants engaged in long and complex discussions and debates, and formed committees to compile full texts about the different subjects of Ayurveda. The attending scholars produced all the Charaka Samhita, the text of internal medicine, the Susruta Samhita, the text of surgery, and the Kashyapa Samhita, the text of pediatrics, and many others.
