![]() The challenge today is to integrate the best of the different healing traditions to meet the healthcare needs of contemporary society. ![]() Prehistory Excavations at different sites suggest that medical interventions such as dentistry and trepanation were practiced as early as 7000 BCE in the Indian subcontinent. Organized forms of agriculture practiced by the people of the Indus civilization, the importance they gave to certain medicinal plants and trees and the emphasis on hygiene and water sanitation suggest an advanced awareness of health management. Trade routes linked the Indus valley civilization to other parts of the subcontinent and westward to Persia, Mesopotamia and the Arabian Sea, and northward to Central Asia. It is highly likely that botanical and medical commodities and knowledge were among the prized items of exchange. Recent archaeo-botanical excavations give evidence for the use in the Middle Gangetic region of medicinal plants since the 2nd millennium BCE that are still used by Ayurvedic physicians and folk healers (1). Vedic Period The Vedic hymns of the migrant Aryan tribes are the earliest literary source of information about healing practices in the sub-continent. ![]() These hymns provide insights into diseases prevalent during the period and their perceived causes. ![]() Most ailments, both physical and mental, were attributed to malevolent spirits and cures consisted of rituals, charms, mantras, medicines and surgical intervention. greater recognition as the first Nighantu which has included vernacular name. ![]()
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