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Ayurveda
: Ancient Heritage in the Age of Globalisation
The historicity of such figures has hardly been discussed
by these studies. This is the case alsowith fewindependent
monographs on medical authorities of ancient India by
scholars like Jaggi (1966) and Shastri (1977).
The nationalist accounts failed to impress upon
the historians and as late as in 1962 we discover
Kutumbiah, a physician by profession, producing his
Ancient Indian medicine
for the purpose of bringing
‘knowledge of the achievements of ancient Indian
medicine to amuchwider reading public’ and ‘establishing
its legitimate place in history’. Nevertheless, the
historiography of Ayurveda remains indebted to the above
studies, particularly for the materials they offer on
Ayurvedic authorities and the details regarding the
scientific aspects of Ayurveda.
In the available literature on ancient Indian
medical historiography, books on their scientific aspects
number the most. Mention must be made first to the
Banaras Hindu University series on ‘Surgery in ancient
India’ by Singhal and his friends (1972 onwards). Based
on the text
Sushruta Samhita
, the series displays true
Sanskrit scholarship and sound surgical knowledge which
were lacking in previous works on the theme. Another
work on the
Sushruta Samhita
has been authored jointly
by Ray, Gupta and Roy (1980). Historiographically this
work is more helpful since it mentions the diseases
