• "Politicking Ayurvedic Education"

    Author(s):
    Anthony Cerulli (see profile)
    Date:
    2018
    Group(s):
    Medical Humanities, Postcolonial Studies
    Subject(s):
    Medicine, History, Education, Imperialism
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    India history, Medicine in india, Ayurveda, History of medicine, History of education, Colonial history, Postcolonial studies, Indian history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/6dvp-mv61
    Abstract:
    As the Indian population’s interest in biomedicine increased at the end of the nineteenth century, public confidence in India’s indigenous medicines flagged. Physicians of Ayurveda and officials of Indian medical organizations responded with discussions about and plans for reconfiguring the āyurveda (“life science”) of the Sanskrit medical classics of Caraka, Suśruta, and Vāgbhaṭa to be compatible with the anatomical, physiological, and pharmacological frameworks of biomedicine. This article considers some of the negotiations that shaped Ayurveda in late colonial and postcolonial India, paying special attention to how these debates affected the history of ayurvedic education. Reflecting on how the presence of biomedicine in India prompted ayurvedic practitioners to reimagine the history of their profession, it examines the revitalization of Ayurveda through the reinvention of ayurvedic education. It probes the historical move away from the gurukula as the seat of education and the institutionalization and standardization of education in the ayurvedic college. The historical record is expanded periodically with ethnographic data collected at gurukulas in South India to offer contemporary views on changes in ayurvedic education over the past 130 years.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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