Medicine in India
Modernization And Globalization
Under first the Moghul and then the British colonial powers, indigenous Indian medicine survived as it always had, mainly through support from patients and the community, but with occasional patronage from the state, with education and practice being devolved and decentralized, often taking place at the family level. During the twentieth century, ayurveda assumed an important role as an icon of national identity during the independence struggle. After independence, the government of India adopted the traditional systems of Indian medicine, including ayurveda, Islamic Unani medicine, yoga, and the South Indian Siddha tradition and provided a state-sponsored structure of education and practice on the model of Western medicine. To these indigenous traditions were also added homeopathy and naturopathy, both adopted and tightly integrated as part of "Indian" health care and administered by the same department within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. At the start of the third millennium, a process of globalization—similar to that which took place earlier with yoga—has begun to occur also with ayurveda. In diaspora ayurveda is changing and adapting, as it moves from its premodern role in India to a new position as one part of a portfolio of alternative and complementary therapies offered alongside modern biomedicine.
See also Medicine: China; Yoga.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dash, Vaidya Bhagwan. Fundamentals of Āyurvedic Medicine. Vol. 85, Indian Medical Science series. Rev. and enlarged. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1999.
Government of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. "Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy: A Gateway for Information." Available on the Internet at http://indianmedicine.nic.in/.
Jolly, Julius. Indian Medicine (1951). Translated by C. G. Kashikar. 3rd ed. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1994.
Langford, Jean M. Fluent Bodies: Ayurvedic Remedies for Postcolonial Imbalance. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002.
Meulenbeld, Gerrit Jan. A History of Indian Medical Literature. 5 vols. Groningen: E. Forsten, 1999–2002.
Mukhopadhyay, Alok, ed. State of India's Health. New Delhi: Voluntary Health Association of India, 1992.
Sharma, Priya Vrat. Caraka-Samhita: Agnivesa's Treatise Refined and Annotated by Caraka and Redacted by Drdhabala (text with English translation). 4 vols. Varanasi, Delhi: Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1999–2001.
——. Suśruta-Samhitā, with English Translation of Text and Dalhana's Commentary Alongwith [sic] Critical Notes. 3 vols. Vol. 9, Haridas Ayurveda series. Varanasi, India: Chaukhambha Visvabharati, 1999–2001
van Alphen, Jan, and Anthony Aris, eds. Oriental Medicine: An Illustrated Guide to the Asian Arts of Healing. London: Serindia, 1995.
Wujastyk, Dominik. The Roots of Āyurveda: Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings. 3rd ed. London and New York: Penguin, 2003.
Zysk, Kenneth G. Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery. 2nd ed. Vol. 2, Indian Medical Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1998.
Dominik Wujastyk
Additional topics
Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Mathematics to Methanal trimerMedicine in India - Systematic Medicine, Medical Concepts And Therapies, Surgery, Modernization And Globalization, Bibliography