Modern Ayurveda in Transnational Context

Abstract

AbstractAyurveda, the ancient system of Indian medicine rooted in Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, remained relatively under‐researched in the humanities and social sciences until the 1970s. It is only in the last four decades that it has received significant scholarly attention, from Indologists and Sanskritists, as well as historians, anthropologists and sociologists. In recent times, the volume of research on modern and transnational Ayurveda has grown, not least because of the growing popularity of this tradition in Western Europe and North America. This survey offers a brief overview of scholarship on the ‘classical’ or ‘traditional’ form of Ayurveda elaborated in ancient Sanskrit texts, before going on to review literature tracing the development of modern Ayurveda both in postcolonial South Asia, as well as in global and transnational settings.