Modern and Global Ayurveda: Pluralism and Paradigms [Paperback]

Frederick M. Smith (Author), Dagmar Wujastyk (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2008

A comprehensive overview of Ayurveda.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Modern and Global Ayurveda provides an overview of the relatively recent history of Ayurveda in its modern and globalized forms. One of the traditional medical systems originating on the Indian subcontinent, Ayurveda is fast becoming a transnational phenomenon. Contributors to this volume include both scholars and practitioners of Ayurveda. The wide range of perspectives they offer include the philosophical, anthropological, sociopolitical, economic, biomedical, and pharmacological. Issues such as the ideological clashes between "classical" and "modernized" Ayurveda, the "export" of Ayurvedic medical lore to Western countries, and the possible "reimport" of its adapted and reinterpreted contents are covered and prove particularly relevant to contemporary discussion on the integration of complementary and alternative health care.

"This book is a really good overview of contemporary Ayurveda: the colonial transformations; the formation of Ayurvedic colleges, institutes, and associations in response to the allopathic influence; the capitalist and global marketing procedures that affect the packaging and distribution of Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals; the global outreach into Europe; and the impact of Ayurveda on New Age religion and thought with a special focus on Maharishi Ayurveda." --Gananath Obeyesekere, author of Cannibal Talk: The Man-Eating Myth and Human Sacrifice in the South Seas

Contributors include Joseph S. Alter, Madhulika Banerjee, Rachel Berger, Ananda Samir Chopra, Elizabeth De Michelis, Cynthia Ann Humes, Françoise Jeannotat, G. Jan Meulenbeld, Suzanne Newcombe, Unnikrishnan Payyappallimana, Sebastian Pole, Mike Saks, Frederick M. Smith, Robert E. Svoboda, Manasi Tirodkar, Richard S. Weiss, Claudia Welch, Dagmar Wujastyk, and Dominik Wujastyk.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Dagmar Wujastyk is an independent scholar pursuing her PhD in Indology at Bonn University, Germany. Frederick M. Smith is Professor of Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions at the University of Iowa and the author of The Vedic Sacrifice in Transition: A Translation and Study of the Trikandamandana of Bhaskara Misra. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press; 1 edition (July 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791474909
• ISBN-13: 978-0791474907
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #753,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting collection of accounts of Ayureveda's past and present, December 31, 2010

By 

William Courson "William Courson" (Montclair, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Modern and Global Ayurveda: Pluralism and Paradigms (Paperback)

Modern and Global Ayurveda is a collection of papers presented at a 2004 conference convened by the Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research at the University of Cambridge edited by Dagmar Wujastyk, an independent scholar in Indology at the University of Bonn and Frederick M. Smith, Professor of Sanskrit and Classical Indian Religions at the University of Iowa.

Modern and Global Ayurveda provides an overview of the recent history of Ayurveda in its modern and globalized forms and the antecedent events and processes leading up to them, offering its readers far more than the usual conference proceedings volume. Rather, it provides an excellent overview of contemporary Ayurveda that is both broad and deep: the British occupation of India; the colonial transformations; the formation of Ayurvedic colleges, institutes, and associations in response to the allopathic influence; the market-driven considerations that affect the packaging and distribution of Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals and the commodification of Ayurvedic training; the global outreach into the Western world; and the impact of Ayurveda on "New Age" religion and thought with a special focus on the activities and institutions founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In their introduction, the editors state that the goal of the book is to present "an account of recent developments in the long history of Ayurveda . . . in the face of three major challenges: (1) British colonialism and the dominance of allopathic medicine, (2) the pressures of modernization, and (3) Ayurveda's diaspora into the world beyond the boundaries of South Asia." They very ably, and readably, meet those challenges.

Contributors to this volume include both Indian and Western scholars and practitioners of Ayurveda. The wide range of perspectives they offer include the philosophical, anthropological, sociopolitical, economic, biomedical, and pharmacological. Issues such as the ideological clashes between "classical" (suddha) and "modernized" (misra) Ayurveda, the "export" of Ayurvedic medical lore to Western countries, and the possible "reimport" of its adapted and reinterpreted contents are covered and prove particularly relevant to contemporary discussion on the integration of complementary and alternative health care.

Of particular interest to Western students and practitioners of Ayurveda will be accounts of the unfortunate state of Ayurvedic education, practice and research in India, the land of its birth. Ayurveda's struggles have not been confined to the West, nor are they limited to promoting public awareness of itself.

Aspiring Western vaidyas will be surprised to learn of Ayurveda's decidedly "second class" status (comparable to that of Osteopathy in the USA circa 1960) in the world of academic medicine (at least insofar as allopathic academic medicine is concerned), the almost willfully poor quality of instruction and pervasive corruption in many Ayurvedic medical colleges, the near-omission from the BAMS curriculum of such Ayurvedic staples as pulse diagnosis and marma vidya, the rudimentary state of research into Ayurveda (outside of the one exception of pharmacognosy research) and the propensity of Ayurvedic graduates in India to forsake their tradition and training for the far more lucrative practice of what has come to be called there "Cosmopolitan" (i.e., Western) medicine. It seems only with the export from and re-import into India of Ayurveda that the practice has been accorded a portion of its due, and that only grudgingly in some governmental, scientific and academic quarters.

I emphatically recommend this very readable and very enlightening volume for all students, practitioners and teachers of Ayurveda. It will shine a very bright light upon some facets of Ayurveda that are little known and most deserving of attention and action both in India and abroad.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern and Global Ayurveda: Enlightment, enlightment!..., July 19, 2011

By 

IVAN ZACHARAUSKAS - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Modern and Global Ayurveda: Pluralism and Paradigms (Paperback)

Being a Ayurveda student and practitioner, alongside with Yoga, I've found very hard to read and hear lots of words from "scholars" and other students or doctors, regarding their foundings and teachings as "ayurvedic". After reading many books, mainly western authors, some of them famous on the subject, I've dedicated my time studying and searching for pure fonts on Ayurveda and Yoga. This book, just as The Roots of Ayurveda, Dominik Wujastyk, Penguin Classics, is definitely among the ones worth reading!