Traditional Medicine System in India

About the Book

The National Mission for Manuscripts was established in February 2003 by the Ministry of Culture. Its purpose is to locate, document, preserve and disseminate the knowledge content of Indian manuscripts. While looking ahead to reconnect with the knowledge of the past, the Mission is in the process of trying to re-contextualize the knowledge contained in manuscripts for the present and the future generations. The Mission organizes seminars on various subjects related to Indian knowledge in different locations of India. The papers presented in the seminar are collected and brought out under the Samiksika series. In December 2010, the Mission organized a seminar on manuscripts related to Indian traditional medicine system at ORIML, University of Kerala. The seminar dealt with different aspects of Ayurveda and its importance to modern society. The main focus of this seminar was on Ayurveda practiced in Kerala, the state which has its own ethnic style of Ayurvedic treatment. The seminar gave ample opportunities to the experts to put forth their views and share their research-oriented knowledge with others.

Preface

The Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library is a department of the University of Kerala, which has crossed its centenary. This department was born out of tutelary interests since the Kings of Travancore were always patrons of art and literature. Ours is the second largest collection of its kind in Asia and there are around 65,000 works out of which around 3000 are Ayurveda Manuscripts.

India is a country which is full of medicinal plants and famous for indigenous medicine system. This system of indigenous medicine prevailed in India in times when modern medicine was not emerged. The famous Ayurvedic physicians Charaka & Susruta lived in India and Vagbhatan is believed to have been lived in Kerala and he wrote Ashtangasamgraha and Ashtangahridaya, which are still considered to be basic texts of Ayurveda in Kerala. Kerala is a state which has its own ethnic style in Ayurvedic treatment which has been found to be the most effective compared to other parts of the country. Now Ayurveda has emerged as a stream in the study of medicine which is considered to be as good as modern medicine. Ayurveda is preferred by people since it has got no side effects and hence becoming more and more important day-by-day. It provides cure for almost all kinds of diseases including terminal diseases.

Hence our attempt through this National Seminar on 'Manuscripts related to Indian Traditional Medicine System' is to probe into the different aspects of Ayurveda and its importance in the modern society. We are hoping that the deliberations and discussions will throw light into many hidden areas which have not become so popular; but needs attention.

I take this opportunity to thank all scholars who contributed the seminar us in response to our invitation. My sincere gratitude goes to National Mission for Manuscripts for all the support rendered to us. Special thanks goes to Dr. Sangamitra Basu, Co-ordinator, Publication for her cooperation in publication of this volume. I also express my gratitude to the Hon. Vice Chancellor & Kerala University authorities for their support.

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