Vol VIII, Issue 2 Date of Publication: April 30, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2023.008

Views
, PDF Downloads:

“Confessions of an Ayurveda professor” — A wake up call

Subhash C Lakhotia
Abstract:
Kishor Patwardhan’s ‘confession’ in this journal [1] has initiated the expected debate, which I hope leads to some good developments for the teaching and practice of Ayurveda. Before, commenting on this issue, I should myself confess that I am neither formally trained in Ayurveda nor practising it. A basic research interest in Ayurvedic biology [2] led me to learn about the “fundamental principles” of Ayurveda and to experimentally examine effects of some Ayurvedic formulations using animal models like Drosophila and mouse at organismic, cellular, and molecular levels. During the past 16 to 17 years of my active engagement with Ayurvedic Biology, I had multiple opportunities to discuss the principles and philosophies of Ayurveda with formally trained Ayurvedacharyas and others who have an interest in this classical healthcare system. These experiences enhanced my appreciation of the wisdom of ancient scholars that led them to methodically compile the elaborate details of treatment for various health conditions in the classical Samhitas and, as noted earlier [3], gave me a “ring-side” view of Ayurveda. Despite the above limitations, an advantage of the “ring-side” view is the possibility of comprehending the philosophies and practices prevalent in Ayurveda in an unbiased manner and weighing them against contemporary practices in other disciplines.


Copyright and license
©Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2023: Open Access and Distributed under the Creative Commons license ( CC BY-NC-ND 4.0),
which permits only non-commercial and non-modified sharing in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

Full Text

HTML | PDF

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Please restrict your comment preferably to 800 words
Comments are moderated. Approval can take up to 48 hours.

Comments:
  1. G L Krishna
    Homi Bhabha Fellow and visiting scholar, IISc , India
    18 January 2023

    The Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME) deserves to be congratulated for proactively facilitating a discussion on the long-pending need to revisit ancient Ayurvedic theories. Almost half-a-dozen articles have been published by the journal on this serious issue. Evidently, IJME has played a more constructive role in this area than all the exclusively Ayurvedic journals put together!

    But, is the AYUSH officialdom capable of listening and doing what’s needful?

    • Affiliation: Homi Bhabha Fellow and visiting scholar, IISc
    • Country: India
  2. Dr Bhargav Tappe
    Poornayu Ayurved Chikitsalay Evam anusandhan VidyapeethJabalpur , MP , India
    19 January 2023

    Appriciable Words by Dr lakhotia sir . Integrative reaseach is Need of time to establish Ayurved Principles in terms of Biologiacal parameters , So as to establish its Significance . Dr patwardhan sir has done good work . I do belongs to kriya Sharir family .

    • Affiliation: Poornayu Ayurved Chikitsalay Evam anusandhan VidyapeethJabalpur , MP
    • Country: India
Help IJME keep its content free. You can support us from as little as Rs. 500 Make a Donation