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Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
The standard of the available history of Ayurveda
or ancient Indian medicine is not rich. It is partly due to
the dearth of sources which permit reconstruction of
different stages of the evolution of the system of medicine.
And it is partly due to the approach of the scholars in the
field who would focus more on
medicine of history
rather
than
history of medicine
.
India lacks the kind of historical records of medical
systems and prescriptions comparable to those unearthed
in Assyrian sites (Steinmann 1990:32). In the case of
Egypt, that is another ancient civilization, there is
multiplicity of survived original papyri works, numerous
wood and other engravings, demonstrating various
medical scenes. Here as well as in further west, one finds
remains of skeletons preserved safe, thanks to the dry
climate. Such remains facilitate investigation of possible
diseases leading to death or cases of operated surgery.
With the help of these remains marvelous works have
been done on Egypt (Ghalioungui 1963) and connected
regions (Manchester 1984). This method of investigation
has come to be called palaeopathology and
palaeostomatology (Brothwell and Sandison 1967:673).
Though the progress in the fieldof palaeopathology
in India has been virtually nil (D.K. Bhattacharya of Delhi
University, 1998: personal conversation), there have been
studies regarding the dreadful medical practice of
