Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
53
the growth of medical science in Europe, it was but fair
that the latter could show its gratitude by rendering all
possible help to the former, old as it was, and almost dying
for want of nourishment. In his opinion Aryan medicine
declined as a result of the unfavourable policies of Mughal
emperors (p.198).
To establish Ayurveda as a science of high scope
and utility, numerous monographs were prepared by
nationalist scholars who highlighted the standard of
Ayurvedic pathology, diagnosis, prognosis,
materia
medica
, therapeutics, gynaecology, obstetrics, paediatrics,
etc. Some representative works among them are those of
Gupta (1901), Mukhopadhyaya (1923), Chakraburty
(1923), and Sharma (1923). As a rule these monographs
are vastly crowed with quotations from the Ayurvedic
literature. After 1947 independent works eulogizing
Ayurveda or ancient Indian medicine are rather rare but
nationalist accounts of it continue to appear in works on
the history of general sciences like those of Seal (1958)
and Mehata (1959). A particular study has tried to deny
orminimize theHellenistic credit to the growth of sciences
in India (Banerji 1961).
Apart from praising the high scientific standard of
Ayurveda, the nationalist accounts contain narratives of
mythological medicine men like Dhanvantari, Indra,
Ashvini, Bhardvaja, Chyavana and Kashyapa and others.
