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Key research themes
1. How has ancient Sanskrit medical literature influenced modern medicine and cardiology?
This theme examines the contributions of classical Sanskrit medical texts, primarily the Ayurvedic Samhitas, to the foundations and concepts of modern medicine and cardiology. It highlights how ancient Indian knowledge provided early understandings of anatomy, physiology, lifestyle medicine, and therapeutic procedures that resonate with or have influenced contemporary medical practice. Investigations focus on conceptual continuity, transmission of knowledge, and specific cardiological insights rooted in Sanskrit medical tradition.
Key finding: Prof. Jagat Narula asserts that the Sanskrit term 'Hridaya' is the etymological root for the English word 'heart', emphasizing that the ancient texts by Sus'ruta and Charaka contained detailed anatomical and physiological... Read more
Key finding: While not Sanskrit-specific, this paper underscores the integration of Indian medical knowledge, alongside other traditions, into Avicenna's Canon of Medicine, a foundational medieval medical text in Europe. It details how... Read more
Key finding: This essay maps the evolution of rasāyana (rejuvenation therapies) within classical Sanskrit medical literature, primarily the Carakasamhita. It highlights specific methodologies such as kuṭīpraveśika and presents rasāyana's... Read more
Key finding: This paper emphasizes the historical neglect of Indian medical history yet notes that ancient Sanskrit medical literature, including Ayurveda, contains detailed systematic knowledge of disease causation, prevention, and... Read more
Key finding: The paper juxtaposes 17th century European traveler John Fryer’s observations with contemporary Sanskrit medical authors’ works, revealing that despite European critiques, Indian medical texts from the early modern period... Read more
2. What roles do Sanskrit medical manuscripts and traditional Ayurvedic practices play in preserving and transmitting indigenous medical knowledge?
This theme explores the material culture and oral traditions surrounding Sanskrit medical manuscripts and Ayurveda practice, focusing on the transmission across generations, including the sociocultural context of Vaidyas (traditional Ayurvedic doctors). It addresses how manuscripts have been archived, studied, and disseminated both inside and outside India, and how practices like Pañcakarma and Rasāyana have been preserved, adapted, or challenged. This area matters due to challenges in manuscript accessibility, legitimacy of traditional knowledge, and the intersection of textual scholarship with living practice.
Key finding: Through an in-depth interview with an Āstavaidya pediatrician from Kerala, the paper details the heredity, education, and practice of Ayurveda as preserved in families, emphasizing the traditional approach of individualized... Read more
Key finding: This paper surveys the relative scarcity and distribution of Sanskrit medical manuscripts outside India, underscoring that while Indian repositories hold millions, foreign collections—although smaller—are often better... Read more
Key finding: The Wellcome collections include around 6000 Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts, making it one of the largest outside India. The paper discusses the provenance and content breadth, emphasizing that these manuscripts are... Read more
Key finding: This paper revisits the 1929 Sanskrit text Śirassekādividhiḥ, which elaborates Kerala’s specialized therapeutic modalities—five key procedures related but not identical to classical Paṅcakarma. It highlights the text’s... Read more
3. How do traditional cosmologies and diagnostic methods in Sanskrit medical literature and related South Asian healing systems conceptualize illness and inform treatment?
This thematic cluster investigates the indigenous conceptualizations of disease causation, diagnosis, and healing paradigms as expressed in Sanskrit medical texts and adjoining traditions such as Nepalese healing and tantric medicine. It emphasizes spiritual, metaphoric, and empirical dimensions coexisting in Sanskrit literature, and how these inform ritual, herbal, and lifestyle interventions. Understanding these conceptions aids scholars in framing Sanskrit medical knowledge within broader cultural epistemologies and practice contexts.
Key finding: This chapter traces historic concepts of illness in Vedic and Sanskrit medical texts emphasizing ritual and supernatural causation of disease alongside empirical knowledge. It discusses the polytheistic healing paradigm... Read more
Key finding: This guide contextualizes Indian medicine’s pluralistic medical system and highlights foundational Sanskrit texts such as the Bhelasaṃhitā, Kāśyapasaṃhitā, and Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā that provide compendious knowledge of... Read more