Traditional System Of Indian Medicine Ayurveda The Background

Author(s): V V Gokhle
Publisher: V V Gokhle

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5. (iii) Knowledge of modern science essential for Ayurveda
On the other hand, there can be no doubt, that Ayurveda has to keep itself abreast of modern medical research, new scientific advance, as e. g. in bacteriology, biology etc., new surgical practices and new remedies in order to test and verify the truth of its own principles. and accept new knowledge. The direction in which this ancient system is to be revived and made to serve the people with greater efficiency and benefit will depend obviously upon its adaptability to modern scientific practices. The efforts which are being made in India today to give it facilities, status and recognition must at the same time seek to give its practitioners the knowledge of all modern theories and scientific appliances so that comparative research and progress in Ayurveda becomes possible. 5. (iv) Medical syllabi in Ayurvedic Colleges
Most of those doctors in modern India who were reputed as the most successful medical practitioners in Ayurveda (like the late Maharși Annasaheb Patwardhan (Poona) or the late Dr. Bhadkamkar (Bombay) were well versed in modern Western medicine and had also fully recognized the value of an integrated system of Indian medicine, Such an integrated Ayurvedic system has been sought to be prescribed in the syllabi of the newly opened Ayurvedic Colleges at various University Centres in India. In these syllabi a training in modern medical science (including subjects like Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology & Bacteriology, Surgery (including ENT & Opthalmology), Midwifery & Gynaecology) is imparted along with all the parallel Ayurvedic subjects (including : Doşadhātumalavijñāna, Dravyagunavijñāna, Rasaśāstra & Auşadhinirmāņa, Svasthavytta, Nidānapañcaka, Vișa-tantra, Rogavijñāna, Kāyacikitsā, Salyaśālākya, Kaumārabhrtya and all their subdivisions, along with Sanskrit studies in the Sāmkhya & Vaiseșika philosophies as well as critical studies: in the basic works of Caraka, Suśruta etc). I am mentioning here the syllabi in Ayurvedic Colleges in some detail, because they show how necessary it is to study the Ayurvedic system in the light of modern Western medicine, if its principles and practice are to prove universally beneficial. These studies naturally put a very heavy
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