Tag: Asia
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Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medicine
The Ayurveda is the world’s oldest healing systems in the world.. Its name comes from the Sanskrit “Ayur,” meaning life, and “Veda,” meaning knowledge. Emerging from the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2600–1900 BCE) and attaining its most developed form in the first millennium BCE, it is based on a philosophical metaphysical system drawn from Sankhya…
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Ancient Chinese medicine
Chinese medicine represents one of the oldest systems in history. It views the human body as an integrated whole where physical health affects mental wellbeing while requiring environmental balance. The core principle of Chinese medicine includes the vital energy called qi (pronounced “chee”) which flows through the body. A proper flow of qi maintains health,…
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Roots and routes
Prasad IyerSingapore Dr. Arjun Mehta stood at the balcony of his Mumbai apartment, gazing out at the chaotic tapestry of the city he once called home. The cacophony of honking horns, aroma of street food, and vibrant saris in the bustling streets below stirred a complex mix of emotions within him. After two decades in…
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Book review: Disease and Healing in the Indus Civilisation
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England The Indus (Harappan) civilisation was one of the three contemporaneous ancient civilisations, the others being the Egyptian and Mesopotamian. First excavated by the British in the 1920s, it existed from 3300–1300 BC, extending from the south in Gujarat to northwest India and Pakistan across the Indus and the now often dried…
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Kadambini Bose Ganguly—India’s first female physician
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England The name Kadambini Ganguly is not as well remembered today as those of other female pioneering physicians around the world. In her time, Ganguly was a remarkable trailblazer and the first Indian female doctor to practice Western medicine in India. She was also one of the first women to be admitted…
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Nicolò Manucci, physician at the Court of Prince Shah Alam in seventeenth-century India
Stephen MartinThailand A teenage stowaway on a ship from Venice in 1653 had an unusual route into medicine. He was Nicolò Manucci (1638–1720, Fig 1). The earliest image of him gathering medicinal herbs in India is in the style of a Moghul imperial artist, probably done in Aurangabad, judging by the pink and brown color of…
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Decoding the death of Maharaja Pandu
B. Sadananda NaikKarnataka, India The Mahabharata is one of two great ancient Indian Sanskrit epics of Hinduism. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War, the Kaurava and Pandava princes. Maharaja Pandu, father of Pandavas, is one of the key figures in this epic. In the story, the premature death…
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Medical monuments in St. John’s Church, Kolkata
Stephen MartinThailand The British architecture of Kolkata, though by no means representative of modern India, has some extraordinary beauty. One of many outstanding sites is St. John’s Church, consecrated in 1787 (Fig 1) and based on James Gibbs’ St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square, London. In the Regency period, Michael Cheese was the…
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Xenotransplantation on Mount Kalilash
Devanshi PatelRajkot, Gujarat, India According to Hindu mythology, Mount Kalilash in the Himalayas is the abode of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati, along with their children Kartikeya and Ganesh.1 The latter son is the elephant-headed god of beginnings, intellectuals, bankers, scribes and authors.2 Many stories are associated with Ganesh’s birth and upbringing. In one…
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An uneasy relationship
P. Ravi ShankarKuala Lumpur, Malaysia My paternal grandmother lived for nearly ninety-three years. She was a strong woman who faced life with courage and dignity. She developed some medical conditions later in life but was active, could carry out her activities of daily living, and lived a very disciplined life. Like many others in India,…