The reign of Gupta Kings may be called the golden period of Indian history. The University of Nalanda was established during the reign of Kumara Gupta I (414-445 A.D.), which also dealt Ayurveda as one of the subjects along with their oriental sciences of India. In this period, the old treatises of different disciplines, including Ayurveda were redacted.
During the ancient times acaryas of Ayurveda had written voluminous works on different specialists, which were not tangible to mediocre students. So, the time demanded concise texts or handbook, which covers the essentials of all the eight branches of Ayurveda. Acarya Vagbhata fulfilled this need. At first, he composed a treatise titled ‘Astanga Sangraha’ by collecting materials from Caraka Samhita, Susruta Samhita and other avialble texts. Afterwards various authors composed a number of works in different periods.
During 5th to 15th century, many a number of commentaries on Brhattrayi and Laghutrayi were written. The commentators also expressed their own concepts while writing their treatise. In the same period, Nighantus also were composed. Acarya Vagbhata found the tradition of compilations, which has put an end to the original writings like those of Caraka, Susruta etc. He stands at the juncture of Samhita period and medieval period.