Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita
by Nayana Sharma | 2015 | 139,725 words
This page relates ‘Social Implications of Diseases and their Treatment’ of the study on the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, both important and authentic Sanskrit texts belonging to Ayurveda: the ancient Indian science of medicine and nature. The text anaylsis its medical and social aspects, and various topics such as diseases and health-care, the physician, their training and specialisation, interaction with society, educational training, etc.
Social Implications of Diseases and their Treatment
Since the last few decades disease is no longer being viewed only as a biological process but also as a social construct. A branch of medical sociology is engaged in the study of the cultural and historical aspects of phenomena thought to be exclusively natural.[1] The medical concept of disease may be different from its societal perceptions. The nature and course of therapeutics are determined by the understanding of aetiology. Alleviation of the syndrome is possible only by the removal of the causal factor leading to the restoration of the original physiological condition. Associated with disease are socio-cultural notions whereby some pathological conditions cause isolation of the patient. In this chapter we will attempt to study the perception of disease in the two ancient Āyurvedic classics, the basic principles and the nature of therapeutics, and the socio-cultural notions of disease.