Decline of Ayurveda in British India

Abstract

Ayurveda is a holistic lifestyle system that teaches the practical details of the arrangement of food, body work, rest periods, and work, which aims to achieve balance of body, mind, and soul. The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of medical knowledge from the Gods to sages, and then to human physicians. In Sushruta Samhita (Sushruta's Compendium), Sushruta wrote that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, including Sushruta. Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia. Therapies are typically based on complex herbal compounds, minerals and metal substances (perhaps under the influence of early Indian alchemy or rasa shastra). Ancient Ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, kidney stone extractions, sutures, and the extraction of foreign objects. Ayurveda flourished in Ancient India, lived in harmony with Unani medicine in Medieval India but declined during British rule. The present Research Paper wishes to explore the reasons for decline and finds that Colonial mindset of British Empire was responsible.