प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

VIII] PROFESSIONAL AND USEFUL EDUCATION 189
of medicine owes a great deal to the Ayurvedic
system.
Medical Education in Later Times :—Training in
the medical profession was fairly efficient in India
down to the 10th century A. D. Ayurvedic doctors
were keeping themselves in touch with the discoveries
and developments taking place elsewhere, and also
experimenting upon new preparations as better
medicines for ailments and diseases. The use of mer-
cury, opium and metallic preparations was introduced
into the pharmacopeia in the medieval times. Dis-
continuance of dissection and consequent decline in
surgery however gave a setback to the system. Owing
to the prevalence of stricter notions of ceremonial
purity, the touch of the corpse became a taboo and
dissection was consequently given up. This became
fatal to progress in surgery, the practice of which
gradually died down. The medical profession began
to be held in low esteem as the doctor had to deal
with filthy diseases and touch dying patients. In the
earlier period famous doctors like Aśvins and Dhan-
vantari were deified; now the followers of the
profession began to be regarded as defilers of the
company at a dinner table.¹ Purāṇas state that medicine
became the profession of the descendants of the illegiti-
mate son born to sage Gālava from his maid-servant
Ambā.² Occasionally we no doubt come across grants
of villages given to doctors by kings; there can be
however no doubt that society as a whole looked down

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1. Manu, III. 152.
2. Some of the Smṛtis also e. g. B. D. S., I. 8. 9. assign the
   medical profession to the children of a mixed caste sprung from the
   union of a Brahmana father and Vaishya mother.