Sushruta was an ancient Indian surgeon (who was possibly born in 7th century BC) and is the author of the book Sushruta Samhita, in which he describes over 120 surgical instruments, 300 surgical procedures and classifies human surgery in 8 categories.

In the Sushruta school, the first person to expound Āyurvedic knowledge was Dhanvantari who then taught it to Divodasa who, in turn, taught it to Sushruta, Aupadhenava, Aurabhra, Paushakalāvata, Gopurarakshita, and Bhoja.

He is credited with performing cosmetic surgery and especially with using forehead skin to reconstruct noses which were amputated as a punishment for crimes in his era.