🌿 Medicine & health in Bharat
Ayurveda and its classical texts, yoga from the Vedas to the International Day of Yoga, the old science of exercise, and India’s modern milestones in medicine and public health.
🌿 Ayurveda and the classical texts
Health as a balance of body, mind and surroundings — and the Sanskrit texts that set it down.
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Health as balance
Ayurveda teaches that true health is a balance of body, mind and surroundings, kept through dinacharya (daily routine), ritucharya (seasonal routine) and food suited to one’s prakriti (body constitution).
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Vedic texts
Krimi: visible and invisible
The Vedas, including the Atharvaveda, use the word ‘krimi’ for tiny entities, both drishya (visible) and adrishya (invisible).
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c. 100 CE (Class 12) · c. 1st–2nd century CE (Grade 9)
The Charaka Samhita
A foundational text of Ayurveda. It explains vyayama (exercise) and the need to balance activity with rest — an early understanding of fatigue and recovery. NCERT’s books date it c. 100 CE and c. 1st–2nd century CE.
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c. 100 CE (Class 12) · c. 3rd–6th century CE (Grade 9)
The Sushruta Samhita
A Sanskrit work on medicine. It stresses moderate exercise and says it should be done only up to half of one’s capacity. NCERT’s books date it c. 100 CE and c. 3rd–6th century CE.
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Gupta period
The texts take their final shape
Ayurveda has much older roots, but its texts — which catalogue and diagnose diseases, among other topics — were compiled and given their final shape in the Gupta period.
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Before modern vaccines
Variolation against smallpox
India had a traditional method called variolation to protect against smallpox; those who performed it were known as teekedaars.
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Today
Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani
Traditional systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani have long been used in India to manage common health problems, using natural substances like herbs and oils.
🧘 Yoga
From the Sanskrit ‘yuj’, to join — a science of living that NCERT traces from the Vedas to the modern gurus.
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The word ‘yoga’
The word comes from the Sanskrit ‘yuj’ — to join, to yoke, to unite. Yoga works on physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual levels.
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Vedic period
In the Vedas and Upanishads
Yoga is referred to in all four Vedas; moksha, its ultimate goal, is explained in the Upanishads. NCERT also notes Indus Valley seals that depict yoga practice.
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Buddhist and Jain pillars
NCERT calls the Buddha’s teaching (the Arya Ashtangika Marga) and Jainism’s five great vows the two pillars of the yoga tradition.
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The epics and the Bhagavad Gita
The Ramayana and Mahabharata refer to yoga many times, and the Bhagavad Gita is considered a classical treatise on yoga.
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c. 2nd century BCE
Patanjali and Ashtanga Yoga
Maharishi Patanjali codified a comprehensive system of yoga and gave the eight limbs of yoga — Ashtanga Yoga — on which Raja Yoga is based.
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Hatha Yoga and the Nath tradition
The Nath tradition shaped Hatha Yoga, which deals with day-to-day health. Its texts include the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Gheranda Samhita, Hatha Ratnavali and Shiva Samhita.
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Four paths: Karma, Jnana, Raja, Bhakti
Karma Yoga is the path of action, Jnana Yoga of knowledge, Raja Yoga of psychic control, and Bhakti Yoga of devotion.
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19th century
Yoga for everyone
Gurus such as Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharshi preached yoga to the masses.
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11 December 2014
21 June becomes the International Day of Yoga
The United Nations proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga by resolution 69/131. India proposed the draft, endorsed by a record 175 member states.
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21 June 2015
The first International Day of Yoga
The first celebration set two Guinness World Records: the largest yoga class, with 35,985 people, and the most participating nationalities (84).
🤸 Vyayama: the old science of exercise
Physical training, games, martial arts and yoga were part of everyday life, with evidence in the Vedas, the epics and Ayurveda.
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What exercise does, says Charaka
The Charaka Samhita (Sutra-sthana 7.32) says exercise brings lightness, work capacity, stability, endurance of hardship and good digestion.
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4th century BCE
The Arthashastra on fitness
The Arthashastra describes military training, and fitness for rulers, soldiers and officials — physical preparedness and public health were matters of state.
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12th century CE
The Manasollasa and Mallakhamb
The Manasollasa mentions Mallakhamb, exercise on a wooden pole.
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13th century CE
The Malla-purana
The Malla-purana describes wrestling exercises.
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1882
The Hunter Commission
The Indian Education Commission recommended that schools encourage native games, gymnastics, drills and other exercises.
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1914
Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal
Founded in Amravati, Maharashtra, by the Vaidya brothers as an akhara, it grew into an institution training instructors in traditional Indian physical activities.
🩺 Modern medicine and public health
Indian scientists in the laboratory and the clinic, and the public-health campaigns that changed millions of lives.
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Kamal Ranadive and cancer research
The biomedical researcher Kamal Ranadive studied how hormones and certain viruses are linked to cancer.
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1968
Har Gobind Khorana’s Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Robert W. Holley and Marshall W. Nirenberg, for interpreting the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.
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2002
Nutrition science and the Mid Day Meal
Coluthur Gopalan began nutrition research in India and analysed more than 500 Indian foods; his work led to the Mid Day Meal Programme in 2002.
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The Rotavirus vaccine
The doctor and scientist Maharaj Kishan Bhan played a key role in developing the Rotavirus vaccine.
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13 January 2011
India’s last polio case
The last case of polio in India was reported on 13 January 2011 — in a country that until 2009 accounted for more than half the world’s polio cases.
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27 March 2014
Certified polio-free
The WHO South-East Asia Region, which includes India, was certified polio-free.
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9 November 2014
The Ministry of AYUSH
Established to develop and propagate the AYUSH systems of health care.
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17 October 2017
All India Institute of Ayurveda
The first All India Institute of Ayurveda, on the lines of AIIMS, was set up on the second Ayurveda Day.
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19 April 2022
WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine
The foundation stone was laid in Jamnagar, Gujarat — the first and only global outpost centre for traditional medicine.
How we check: every entry is from an NCERT textbook or an official page (UN, WHO, PIB, PMO); our build fails unless its key phrases are found in the source itself. Where two NCERT books give different dates, both are shown. This page records history; it is not medical advice.