Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) History of Medicine in India Syllabus - Mumbai University 2026

Module 1: Ancient and Medieval Medicine in India

• a Meaning and scope of medical history, Sources for studying medical history, Ancient Indian Medicine (Ayurveda, Dhanvantari, Charaka, Sushruta, Nagarjun)
• b Medieval Indian Medicine (Unani system, Hakims)
• c Traditional Medical Practices (Herbal and home remedies)

Module 2: Modern Medicine in India

• a Medicine during the British Period (Hospitals and medical education)
• b Medical Development after Independence (Public health and government hospitals)
• c Present-day Medical System in India (Allopathy and AYUSH)

Text Books

• 1 Mukhopadhyaya Girindranath, History of Indian Medicine, Calcutta University, Kolkata, 1922.
• 2 Wujastyk Dominik, The Roots of Ayurveda, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2003.
• 3 Arnold David, Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1993.
• 4 Bala Poonam, Medicine and Colonialism: Historical Perspectives in India, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1991.
• 5 Government of India, AYUSH Systems in India, Ministry of AYUSH, New Delhi, 2014.

Reference Books

• 1 Arnold, D. (1993). Colonizing the body: State medicine and epidemic disease in nineteenth-century India. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• 2 Arnold, D. (2000). Science, technology and medicine in colonial India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• 3 Bala, P. (1991). Imperialism and medicine in Bengal: A socio-historical perspective. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
• 4 Banerjee, M. (2014). Power, knowledge, medicine: Ayurvedic pharmaceuticals at the intersection of traditional and modern. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
• 5 Basham, A. L. (1976). The practice of medicine in ancient and medieval India. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
• 6 Chakrabarti, P. (2010). Materials and medicine: Trade, conquest and therapeutics in the eighteenth century. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
• 7 Cohen, L. (1998). No aging in India: Alzheimer’s, the bad family, and other modern things. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• 8 Cueto, M., Brown, T., & Fee, E. (2019). The world health organization: A history. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (India-related global public health context)
• 9 Ganesan, S. (2018). Medicine and public health in colonial India. New Delhi: Routledge India.
• 10 Harrison, M. (1994). Public health in British India: Anglo-Indian preventive medicine 1859–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• 11 Harrison, M. (2009). Medicine in an age of commerce and empire: Britain and its tropical colonies, 1660–1830. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• 12 Kumar, D. (Ed.). (2001). Disease and medicine in India: A historical overview. New Delhi: Tulika Books.
• 13 Leslie, C. (Ed.). (1976). Asian medical systems: A comparative study. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• 14 Mukharji, P. B. (2016). Doctoring traditions: Ayurveda, small technologies, and braided sciences. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• 15 Pati, B. (2001). Situating social history of medicine in India. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
• 16 Pati, B., & Harrison, M. (Eds.). (2009). Health, medicine and empire: Perspectives on colonial India. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
• 17 Ramasubban, R. (2018). Public health and medical care in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• 18 Roy, P. (2013). Indian medicine in the classical age. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• 19 Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2015). As the world ages: Rethinking a demographic crisis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (India-focused demographic–medical history context)
• 20 Zysk, K. G. (1991). Asceticism and healing in ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist monastery. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.