Who among the following was a contributor to the subject of medicine in ancient India?

🔑 Key Points
Charaka
→ Charaka was a contributor to the subject of medicine in ancient India.
→ He was the court physician of Kaniska.
→ Charaka was one of the principal contributors to Ayurveda medicine in ancient India.
→ He is best known for his work Charaka Samhita.

Charaka Samhita
→ It is also called Caraka-Samhita.
→ It is a detailed text on ancient Indian medicine attributed to Charaka, a practitioner of Ayurveda, India's traditional medical system.
→ Charaka-Samhita, also spelt Caraka-Samhita or Caraka-samhita, is a comprehensive text on ancient Indian medicine credited to Charaka.
→ Charaka is thought to have flourished sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE.
→ The Charaka-Samhita, in its current form, is believed to have originated in the first century CE.
→ According to ancient Indian medicine studies, the original text was written by Agnivesha, one of the six disciples of Ayurvedic scholar Punarvasu Atreya.
→ The Agnivesha-Samhita, written by Agnivesha, was unlike any other in terms of depth and quality. It came to be known as the Charaka-Samhita after Charaka refined and annotated it.
→ The treatise was divided into eight parts, or ashtanga sthanas, by Charaka: sutra, nidana, vimana, sarira, endriya, chikitsa, Kalpa, and Siddha; each section had multiple chapters.

📌 Important Points
→ Panini
→ Harsha

📝 Additional Information
Panini
→ He was born in Shalatula on the Indus River in present-day Pakistan.
→ He was a Sanskrit grammarian and gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology.
→ He is considered the founder of the language and literature of Sanskrit.
→ His major work involves a treatise called Astadhyayi (or Astaka). It consists of eight chapters, each subdivided into quarter chapters.
→ Under Astadhyayi, he distinguished between the language of sacred texts and the usual language of communication.
→ He gave formal production rules and definitions to describe Sanskrit grammar.
→ He gave about 1700 basic elements like nouns, verbs, vowels, and consonants and put them into classes.
→ Pushyamitra Shunga is a post-Mauryan king, whereas the birth year of Panini is not known. Experts give dates of Panini in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries, all of which are Pre-Mauryan.
→ Astadhyayi (or Astaka) is Panini's major work related to Sanskrit grammar.

Harsha
→ Harshavardhana ruled from 606-647 CE.
→ He lived from 590 to 647 CE and was the last ruler of the Vardhana Empire.
→ He was the king of the Vardhana dynasty and was the son of Prabhakarvardhana.
→ He took the title of sakal uttara patha natha (lord of northern India).
→ His biography Harshacharita ("Deeds of Harsha") was written by Sanskrit poet Banabhatta.
→ He authored Nagananda, Ratnavali, Priyadarshika, all written in the Sanskrit language.