000			01631nam a2200181 4500
001			21891794
010			_a 2020330970
020			_a9780190121082
020			_a0190121084
082			_a615.53809 _bRAG/A
100	0		_aRāghavavāriyar, M R
245	1	2	_aA brief history of Āyurveda
260			_aNew Delhi _bOxford University Press _c2020
300			_axxx,172 p. _billustrations (black and white) ;
520			_aFor over two and a half millennia Āyurveda was the mainstream healthcare programme in the Indian subcontinent. However, what was once seen as indispensable, is now often officially described as ‘alternative medicine’. Moreover, there seems to be a lack of proper understanding of the specific culture from which Āyurveda emerged. This is because existing works on the subject have mostly been mere compilations of Āyurvedic practices and focused on classical texts. This book studies the stages of development in the system of Āyurveda and its practice from proto-historic times until British colonization. Using original Pāli and Sanskrit works, archaeological artefacts, as well as oft-neglected medieval epigraphic documents, M. R. Raghava Varier highlights how centuries of privileging Western knowledge has resulted in the sidelining of indigenous learning—a process that accelerated with the advent of colonialism. Further, he makes use of Jain and Buddhist sources to question the assumption that Āyurveda is a purely Hindu or Brahmanical system, thus providing a historiographical frame for conceptually establishing the notion of Āyurveda.
650		0	_aMedicine, Ayurvedic
942			_cBK
999			_c64734 _d64734