The author of this work is pleased to place before readers Essays on Indian Medical History in general and Karnataka in particular. The above work is a collection of papers on different aspects of Indian medical history. The essays here are traced and viewed in historical perspective. The aim of study is to elucidate a few aspects of the Indian medical progress from the formative period to the end of the eighteenth century. Extensive and intensive readings of the medical literatures and other sources available in India and abroad establish the truth that the diseases haunted people's lives. To ward off this, the medical savants thought of curative and preventive measures. They found out the dictum "prevention is better than cure." Finally, they realised the truth "Health is wealth".
The ancient Indian physicians considered the medical science as science of life. Medical sciences also stood for "knowledge for life". Besides. they viewed it as the most superior to other sciences because the medical science "does good to mankind and is an indispensable guide for health and virtuous acts".
The arguments are still going on regarding the nature of medical science. Some regard it as pure science. However, recently there is strong view that the medical science involves human aspect especially regarding its relation with a sick person's behaviours and attitudes and the temperaments of the physicians. Therefore, the study of medical history is leaning towards humanism. Consequently, its study is broad based and varied. Further. the medical history is now regarded as an integration of all knowledge of medicine in addition to description of a past event. A stage has come to regard that "medicine is science and medical treatments are artistic and religious". It stands for health and diseases through the ages. Thus, humanism is imbibed here. In the words of Dr Siegrist "It is all human activities that tend to promote health, to prevent illness, and to restore the sick." Medical history is gaining importance in the academic world as its study furnishes an integrated knowledge on the medical features such as patient, physician, disease, prognosis, diagnosis and curative treatments of the diseases.
Although ancient Indian medical literatures recognised the significance of the study of the medical history, it was the European scholars who gave an academic approach to its study.
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