RAS question
Assertion (A): The Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita are the two foundational texts of Ayurveda. Reason (R): Charaka Samhita focuses primarily on surgical techniques while Sushruta Samhita deals mainly with internal medicine (kayachikitsa).
Correct answer: (C) A is correct, but R is wrong.
The Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita are foundational Ayurvedic texts, but Charaka is associated with internal medicine while Sushruta is associated with surgery.
Explanation
Assertion A is correct because the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita are treated as core classical texts of Ayurveda. The reason is wrong because it reverses their specialisations. Britannica identifies the Caraka-samhita and Susruta-samhita as texts attributed respectively to Caraka, a physician, and Susruta, a surgeon. Charaka Samhita is primarily linked with internal medicine or kayachikitsa, along with pharmacology and the tridosha framework of vata, pitta and kapha. Sushruta Samhita is the surgical text, associated with surgical procedures, instruments and operations such as rhinoplasty. So A stands, but R fails.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) It treats R as correct, although R wrongly assigns surgery to Charaka and internal medicine to Sushruta.
- (B) It accepts both A and R as correct, but R is factually wrong because the two texts' roles are reversed.
- (D) It rejects A even though both Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita are foundational Ayurvedic classics; only R is wrong.
Concept
This tests ancient Indian science and medical literature, especially the association of major Ayurvedic texts with their fields. RAS often asks such assertion-reason items because they check both cultural-history recall and precision about text-author-specialisation links.