Madhusudan Gupta

Pandit Madhusudan Gupta (Bengali: মধুসূদন গুপ্ত) (1800 – 15 November 1856) was a Bengali Baidya translator and Ayurvedic practitioner who was also trained in Western medicine and is credited with having performed India's first human dissection at Calcutta Medical College (CMC) in 1836, almost 3,000 years after Susruta. Born into a Baidya family, he studied Ayurvedic medicine at the Sanskrit College and progressed to teacher. Here, he began translations of a number of English texts into Sanskrit, including Hooper's Anatomists’ Ved-mecum. In addition, he attended anatomy and medicine lectures, becoming familiar with the developing clinical-anatomical medicine of Europe. In 1835, he was transferred to the new CMC, where he was fundamental in gathering Indian support for practical anatomy and in breaking down Hindu taboos on touching the dead, consequently taking sole responsibility for the first human dissection, performed under the guidance of Professor Henry Goodeve and assisted by four other Hindu students. Controversies regarding the exact date of the first procedure, whether other students had performed it before and whether a military salute was given, remain. Despite any discrepancies, this singular act of dissection has become symbolic of the move of western medicine into India. As a practitioner, he was successful and well regarded amongst his Indian contemporaries as well as by his European colleagues. In 1837, his involvement with the General Committee of the Fever Hospital and Municipal Improvements included recommendations for Kolkata's sanitation, a plead for better maternal care and a commendation to the smallpox vaccinators of Kolkata. His contributions to the research on puberty helped dismiss myths about the discrepancy of menarche between Indian and British women. Gupta died from diabetic septicaemia in 1856, at the age of 56.

Early life

Madhusudan Gupta, also spelled in several other ways including Panndit Madusudden Gupta, Madhu Sudan Gupta, and Moodhoosooden Goopto, was born sometime in 1800 into a Baidya family, a traditional physician community, in Baidyabati, Hooghly. His grandfather was the family physician of Hooghly's Nawab and his great-grandfather was a Bakshi. Gupta rebelled against his father's wishes to pursue studies and left home during his early education. In December 1826, he gained admission to the Ayurvedic class of the Sanskrit College. What happened in the years between leaving home and entry to college is unclear.

Early career

Sanskrit College Gupta became a Sanskrit scholar and an Ayurvedic physician. In 1830, he was promoted from student to teacher at the Sanskrit College, a position he retained until January 1835. Initially, the promotion had caused an outcry among the students who boycotted his lessons. During his time at the Sanskrit College, Gupta attended anatomy and medicine lectures given by Tytler and John Grant. After five years of doing so, he became their assistant.

Medical translations It was also during his time at the Sanskrit College that he commenced his work on translations. Translating English into an ordinary Indian language or into a classical Indian language was not straightforward and caused much dilemma in how to transplant European science into India. Scholars were aware that it was impossible to simply wipe out what Indians had learnt over the centuries and swap them with Western theoretical structures. The most noted example of a debate on the subject was the dilemma around Hooper's book. In 1834, Gupta was paid 1,000 rupees for translating Hooper's Anatomists’ Ved-mecum. It was completed under the title of Śärîravidyā ("Science of Things Relating to the Body") and was taken up for publication by the Asiatic Society, but was abandoned after page thirty-six, due to conflicting opinions on which language it was to be published in. It was following much discussion and the formation of a committee, that it was ultimately published in Sanskrit rather than Hindi.

Calcutta Medical College

A committee set up by the East India Company (EIC) in 1833, regarded the training of Kolkata's medical staff as unsatisfactory. As a consequence, the Ayurvedic and Yunani courses taught at the Sanskrit College and the School for Native Doctors’, both originally established by the EIC, were abolished. The plan was to replace them with a fully equipped Medical College, to educate and train the natives in "the art of healing". Newly founded in March 1835, Gupta was transferred to the CMC, as a native teacher, where he became involved in the execution of the first entrance examinations and where he also assisted Henry Goodeve and William Brooke O'Shaughnessy. Subsequently, the first cohort consisted of just under fifty students who passed and commenced the course. However, the issue of anatomy dissection posed a problem for the course organisers.

Introduction of anatomy

Background The obstacles to the study of practical anatomy were not unique to India. England had its own qualms regarding acceptance of human dissection and difficulties in obtaining bodies. British anatomy students were increasingly looking to France for training and the emphasis on knowing the anatomy of the body, diseased or otherwise, on being a competent abled physician or surgeon was strongly felt by western medicine. This conviction, the 1834 report on the state of medical education in Bengal, along with the resulting formation of the CMC and its then affiliation with University College London, all played their part towards meeting the growing need of trained native doctors for a mounting British army. Adding to this, the persistence of Lord William Bentinck, Henry Goodeve and others and the surrounding abundant supply of dead bodies in Kolkata, created a passage for practical anatomy from Europe to India. All that was then needed was Indian acceptance.

The first human dissection

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