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The Traditional System of Indian Medicine*
(Āyurveda) -the Background
by
V. V. Gokhale**
1. Introductory
To speak on Medicine one has to be a practising medical doctor, - a practitioner with as large an experience as possible; because Medicine is above all a practical science, we may say, almost as practical as life itself, which it professes to treat and keep healthy. Myself, professing only to be a Doctor of Philosophy' and not of Medicine, I would try to deal with this subject more in relation to its historical, philosophical and cultural, rather than technical side. As a layman, the traditional Indian medicine as well as the modern practice of Western medicine in India being more familiar to me than many other systems, I propose to speak also, in a general way, about the efforts which are being made there to preserve the methodology and principles of Ayurveda in face of the standardised medical science as practised today in the West as well as in India. 2. Scientific validity of Ayurveda-sästra
To question the scientific validity of the Indian Ăyurveda as is often done is to my mind either pointless or chauvinistic, because in doing so we may be applying the wrong criterions to judge the historical value of a system of knowledge, which has yet by no means
ed its utility to human life, nor ceased to be rational. There are several other areas of ancient Indian culture, which may appear to be outmoded from the point of view of modern thinking. There is, e. g., the Arthaśāstra of Cānakya, dealing with problems of politics
* Lecture delivered on Thursday 16 th Dec. 1971, at the Indian Embassy Hall,
Tokyo. Formerly Prof. and the Head of the Dpt. of Buddhist Studies, Univ. of Delhi. Permanent Address : 39/14–15, PRABHAT ROAD, POONA 4 (INDIA)
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