The ancient Indian medical treatise for horses called Ashvashastra is attributed to which one of the following persons?

Correct — B, The sage Shalihotra. Shalihotra is the name attached in the Indian tradition to the earliest systematic writing on horses — their anatomy, breeds, diseases, surgery and management — and the work is variously called the Shalihotra Samhita, the Haya Ayurveda or simply the Ashvashastra. So firmly is the association fixed that in later Sanskrit a veterinarian could be called a shalihotri, and the equivalent treatise on elephants, the Hastyayurveda, is credited to a different sage, Palakapya. The other three names in the option list belong to genuine authors of the classical period, but none of them wrote on horses.

• (a)Vagbhatta of the seventh century — Vagbhata is one of the great trio of Ayurveda alongside Charaka and Sushruta, and the author of the Ashtanga Hridaya and the Ashtanga Sangraha, which are treatises on human medicine.
• (c)Bhartrihari of the seventh century — Bhartrihari is remembered for the Vakyapadiya on the philosophy of language and for the three centuries of verse on conduct, love and renunciation; he wrote nothing on veterinary science.
• (d)Varahamihira of the sixth century — Varahamihira was an astronomer and astrologer, the author of the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika, and belongs to a different discipline altogether.

Classical India produced specialist medical literature for animals as well as for people, and it is organised by species. The Shalihotra tradition covers horses. The Palakapya tradition, in the Hastyayurveda, covers elephants. Both belong to the wider Ayurvedic framework of humours and treatment, and both mattered practically, because cavalry and war elephants were the expensive components of an army and their upkeep was a matter of state.

Items of this kind are decided by pairing each name with the one work it is famous for, which is why it repays learning the classical authors as a list. Charaka for the compendium on medicine, Sushruta for surgery, Vagbhata for the Ashtanga texts, Varahamihira for astronomy and the miscellany of the Brihat Samhita, Aryabhata for mathematics and astronomy, Bhartrihari for grammar and poetry, Panini for the Ashtadhyayi, Patanjali for the Mahabhashya and the Yoga Sutras, Shalihotra for horses and Palakapya for elephants. The stem here supplies both the subject and the genre, so any candidate holding that list will land on the right name at once.

• The Shalihotra Samhita, also called Haya Ayurveda or Ashvashastra, is the classical Indian treatise on the care and treatment of horses.
• The word shalihotri came to mean a veterinarian in later Sanskrit usage.
• The Hastyayurveda, the corresponding treatise on elephants, is attributed to the sage Palakapya.
• Vagbhata wrote the Ashtanga Hridaya and the Ashtanga Sangraha and is grouped with Charaka and Sushruta as the great trio of Ayurveda.
• Varahamihira wrote the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika; Bhartrihari wrote the Vakyapadiya and the three shatakas.

• Choosing Vagbhata because he is the only medical name on the list; his subject is human medicine.
• Assuming a treatise with a Sanskrit name and a seventh-century author must be the answer because the dates look impressive.
• Mixing up Shalihotra with Palakapya, which is the elephant tradition.

As an author-to-work match with three well-known writers of other disciplines used as distractors.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Hastyayurveda, the classical Indian treatise on elephants, is attributed to

  • (a)Palakapya
  • (b)Shalihotra
  • (c)Sushruta
  • (d)Dhanvantari

  Answer(a) Palakapya — Shalihotra's tradition covers horses, Palakapya's covers elephants.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Brihat Samhita was composed by

  • (a)Aryabhata
  • (b)Varahamihira
  • (c)Brahmagupta
  • (d)Bhaskara II

  Answer(b) Varahamihira — a wide-ranging compendium covering astronomy, omens, architecture and much else.