Ayurveda: Encyclopedia II - Ayurveda - Brhat Trayi The greater triad

Ayurveda - Brhat Trayi The greater triad

The Charaka and Sushruta Samhitās are compendiums of two traditions rather than texts authored by single authors. A third tradition is that of the Kāshyapas. Some plant remedies of ayurveda are also mentioned in the earlier Vedic literature 2nd millennium BC. Both the Sushruta and Charaka Samhitās are the product of several editorial hands, having been revised and supplemented over a period of several hundred years.

The scholar Vāgbhata, who lived in Sind at the beginning of the 7th century AD, produced a grand synthesis of earlier ayurvedic materials in a verse work called Ashtānga Hridayam. Another work associated with the same author, the Asthanga Samgraha, contains much the same material in a more diffuse form, written in a mixture of prose and verse. The relationship between these two works, and a third intermediate compilation, is still a topic of active research. The works of Charaka, Sushruta, and Vagbhata are considered canonical and reverentially called the Vriddha Trayi, "the triad of ancients"; or Brhat Trayi, "the greater triad." In the early eighth century, Mādhav wrote his Nidāna, a work on etiology, which soon assumed a position of authority. In the 79 chapters of this book, he lists diseases along with their causes, symptoms, and complications.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Brhat Trayi The greater triad", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki