The Practice ofInjekśanTherapy in Ayurveda

Abstract

The distribution of Western pharmaceutical products in the Third World has created particular problems for traditional healers practising holistic approaches to health. This paper looks at the impact of ‘injection therapy’ on Ayurveda, the Brahmanical healing tradition of south Asia. The use of hypodermic needle and syringe is alien to Ayurveda but in the last several decades has become almost standard practice. The present study forms part of a detailed analysis of the clinical practice of one Ayurvedic healer who works on the Indo-Nepalese frontier. At his clinic penicillin is frequently administered by injection, its efficacy being interpreted holistically in terms of the equilibrium theory of illness. Although the healer recognized that penicillin recently came to south Asia from the West, nonetheless he asserted that penicillin was known to Brahmanical sages of the past. By claiming that this modern antibiotic was known to the ancients, the autonomy of Ayurveda is maintained.