2,600 years ago, Sushruta described 300+ surgical procedures and performed plastic surgery. His 'Indian flap' rhinoplasty technique is still used by surgeons today.
Around 600 BCE — more than two and a half millennia before modern hospitals — the physician Sushruta practiced and taught surgery on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. His treatise, the Sushruta Samhita, is recognized worldwide as one of the foundational texts of surgery, and he is honoured in medical literature as the "Father of Surgery."
What the Sushruta Samhita actually describes
- Rhinoplasty (nose reconstruction) using a flap of skin from the forehead or cheek — the famous "Indian flap."
- Cataract surgery (couching), removal of bladder stones, caesarean-style deliveries, and treatment of fractures with traction and splints.
- Anatomy through dissection — Sushruta insisted students learn from real human bodies, radical for any era.
- Surgical training on models — students practiced incisions on vegetables and leather bags filled with water before touching a patient, an ancient version of today's surgical simulation.
- Wound care and hygiene, including fumigation of operating areas and the use of wine and herbal preparations to dull pain.
The proof that convinced the modern world
In 1794, London's Gentleman's Magazine published an eyewitness account of an Indian craftsman rebuilding the nose of a man named Cowasjee using the traditional forehead-flap method — a technique passed down from Sushruta's tradition. British surgeon Joseph Carpue studied it, performed Europe's first modern rhinoplasty in 1814, and the method entered Western medicine. To this day, surgical textbooks call the forehead-flap reconstruction the "Indian flap" or "Indian rhinoplasty."
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Melbourne displays a statue of Sushruta, honouring him as the Father of Surgery.
A heritage to be proud of
While Sushruta was classifying burns into four degrees and describing diabetes (madhumeha) by the sweetness of urine, most of the world had no systematic medicine at all. Indian medical knowledge travelled to Baghdad, where the Samhita was translated into Arabic as Kitab-i-Susrud in the 8th century, influencing medicine across the Islamic world and Europe.