Dear Readers

By the grace of Lord Dhanvantari, we could bring out this "Salya Tantra" by now. This book is written for the benefit of the undergraduates and P.G. Scholars of Ayurveda and for the benefit of modern surgeons, who wish to know about the hidden treasures of knowledge of our ancient Indian surgeons and sages. Probably because of long communication gap, certain contents of ayurvedic surgery may look impracticable for today's circumsatances. But the readers can appreciate that the principles of surgery laid down by our sages are in no way infefior to the tremendously developed modern principles. The treatment of fractures tumors, piles, fistula, etc., are almost similar to the modern trends.

We have tried our best to interpret the original texts of Slokas in modern terms also. An Ayurvedic practitioner should focus his attention on some of the forgotten and discontinued and at the same time very effective techniques like Siraa-Vyadhanam (vene-section), Jalawkavacharanam (application of leeches), Kshara sutra, cosmetic surgery, Agni Karma (Cauterization) etc., as described by Susruta and Vagbhata. We have not left any matter either ayurvedic or modern part of the CCIM syllabus of BAMS. Almost all the Slokas are given in English script and some of the important Slokas are given in Devanagari script also. The chapter on Vrana are a little more exhaustive. This has happened because of some confusion in understanding the contents of syllabus. Anyhow, the students can take only the portion that is necessary for their examination purpose.