Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
51
involved in announcing that the medicine of India did not
contain even the rudiments of science. The European bias
in historiography of Ayurveda or ancient Indian medicine
is reflected also in newer write-ups. For example
Krumbhaar (1947:84-97) says that medicine in ancient
India was ‘different from the Greek one and was in
primitive state’.
The prejudice is again demonstrated in scores of
writings on the world history of medicine which seldom
involve the ancient Indian contexts. There is host of such
works on the history of public health (Rosen 1958),
psychiatry (Sachneck 1960), preventive medicine (Wain
19670) and general history of medicine (Metter 1947;
Ashworth 1953; Gunthrie 1960; Singer and Underwood
1962; Hobson 1963).
However, this pattern has not been uniformly
followed by all western scholars in the field. Though not
copiously, certain scholars have indeed referred to the
ancient Indian medical systems. They have provided
useful materials on history of medical education
(Puschmann 1891); healing gods of antiquity (Jayne
1925); history of surgery (Zimmermann and Veith 1961),
science and secrets of early medicine (Thorwald 1962)
and ancient diseases caused by bacteria and virus (Hare
1967).(It is, however, strange that Hare has dated the
ancient Indian text
Manusmriti
in 1300 BC: 126). A few
