फ़रवरी, 2020 तक भारतीय अख़बारों में दुनिया में एक नये वायरस के फैलने की सूचना प्रमुखता से आने लगी थी।
अख़बारों ने हमें बताया कि कोविड-19 सबसे अधिक जानलेवा है। लेकिन यह नहीं बताया कि हमारी हिंदी पट्टी में टी.बी, चमकी बुख़ार, न्यूमोनिया, मलेरिया आदि से मरने वालों की एक विशाल संख्या है। इन बीमारियों से सिर्फ़ हिंदी पट्टी में हर साल 5 से 7 लाख…[Read more]

Presentation in the working group “History of Science in Early South Asia” at https://www.chstm.org/early-south-asia on Dec. 19th 2022.

भारत में क्या हालत हो चुकी है, इसका अनुमान दिसंबर, 2020 में हुए एक सर्वेक्षण से लगता है। इस सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार भारत की आधी से अधिक आबादी को कोरोना-काल में पहले की तुलना में कम भोजन मिल रहा है। इनमें ज़्यादातर दलित और आदिवासी हैं।

लेकिन इन सूचनाओं से भी अधिक भयावह यह है कि भारत का बौद्धिक वर्ग, ग़रीबों के सर पर मँडराते मौत के इस साये से प्…[Read more]

The seminal 1989 study “Mantra in Ayurveda” by Kenneth G. Zysk1 describes four areas in which mantras were used in early Ayurveda: the treatment of wounds and swellings/tumours, of poisoning, of mental disorders, and the collection and preparation of certain medicines. Although this article is a highly important contribution to the study of the…[Read more]

The seminal 1989 study “Mantra in Ayurveda” by Kenneth G. Zysk1 describes four areas in which mantras were used in early Ayurveda: the treatment of wounds and swellings/tumours, of poisoning, of mental disorders, and the collection and preparation of certain medicines. Although this article is a highly important contribution to the study of the…[Read more]

The coronavirus-induced lockdown hasn’t just eroded our physical liberty; it has also eroded our intellectual freedom. Our freedom to think has been put under lock and key. Clearly, we are on the threshold of a dangerous phase. Which way we go from here will depend on how soon and how well we gauge the danger and start exploring the ways to c…[Read more]

अधिकांश लोग समझते हैं कि चिकित्सक ही जांच द्वारा तय करते हैं कि किसे कोविड है और किसे नहीं तथा अगर किसी की मौत होती है तो चिकित्सक ही यह तय करते हैं कि वह मृत्यु कोविड से हुई है या किसी अन्य कारण से। इसलिए जब कोई खुद को चिकित्सक बताता है या अपने परिवार में चिकित्सकों के होने का ज़िक्र करता है तो लोग उसकी बात पर अनिवार्य रूप से विश्वास करते ह…[Read more]

As was expected, the country is witnessing an explosion of Covid cases, leading to chaos and mayhem. People are dying for want of oxygen. The protocol for the treatment of Covid patients is faulty and that is one reason for the high number of deaths. Thanks to the protocol, deaths due to other causes are also being added to the Covid toll. In this…[Read more]

Although he obtained a medical degree at the University of Caen in 1618, Isaac Beeckman never practised medicine. Instead, he developed an atomistic conception of Galenic physiology by discussing, throughout his notebook, the constituents and functioning of the living body. Interestingly, Beeckman applied his atomistic interpretation to the notion…[Read more]

Historically the Red Cross has created opportunities for women that were otherwise denied to them in their wider society. This role for female Red Cross workers is not a recent thing and is deeply embedded in the past and psyche of the organisation.

This article examines the political role of illness in Émile Zola’s ‘La Faute de l’abbé Mouret’ (‘The Sin of Father Mouret’, 1875) in articulating the difference between a religious and a secular body. Published in the early French Third Republic (1870–1940), this novel shows the Zolian body as the nexus upon which religious and republi…[Read more]

In ‘Degeneration’ (1892), Max Nordau included Émile Zola in his theory that fin-de-siècle artists were a danger to society. According to Nordau, the ‘false science’ in Zola’s Naturalist novels would erode social progress in their alleged preoccupation with disease, sexual deviancy and amorality. This article proposes that degeneration is, how…[Read more]

Im Ayurveda bedarf die Entstehung von Epidemien einer gesonderten Erklärung, da sie nicht mit dem dort gültigen allgemeinen Verständnis der Krankheitsentstehung in Einklang zu bringen ist. Das Grundkonzept sieht vor, dass Menschen je nach Konstitution, Ernährung, Körperkraft, Gewöhnung,
Charakter und Alter für bestimmte Krankheiten anfäll…[Read more]

Slides accompanying a talk presented at a joint research meeting of the Sushruta Project and the Classical Āyurveda Text Study Group in Vienna, July 2022.

The term cancer climax is meant as, in the narrative, the building culmination of the illness to a narrative point at which either the ill or the illness finally succumbs; the cancer climax is not necessarily synonymous with the overall narrative climax or peak of the story. Creators might place it at a separate point in their works to impart a…[Read more]

Cyprian’s Epistle 63 represents the earliest extant account of the proper meaning and administration of the eucharistic cup. Against a group of Christians who were taking only water, Cyprian argues that wine is necessary for the ritual to be effective. While there has been much discussion surrounding the biblical references marshaled by Cyprian t…[Read more]

Humankind, for Gregory of Nyssa, was poisoned through a primordial act of eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. As a result, the toxin of sin and death has been blended into the body and soul of each person, dispersing itself throughout the component parts of their nature. If eating and drinking initiated the spiritual and physical…[Read more]

Like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) itself, Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie does not reveal itself immediately. The YA graphic novel betrays nothing on its cover, with its summary blurb, or for the first sixty-plus pages of the story. With no overt initial comment, the narrative follows sixth-grader Maggie as she…[Read more]