Before Western medical systems became prominent, Ayurveda and Unani had evolved into specialized indigenous medicinal systems in India. Health, Medicine and the Encounter of Cultures in India examines the social, cultural, and linguistic facets of medicine that influenced these indigenous systems. Exploring medical literature and other texts in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries, this work traces the interactions and changes in the components and practice of medicine.

The book focuses not only on the growth of medical systems in the subcontinent but also on physicians’ standing in Indian society. Evaluating the impact of Europeans’ entrance into India, the volume argues that this arrival resulted in the establishment of a new medical system and sheds light on the training offered to vaidyas and hakims in the early centuries following the former’s arrival. From tracing the descriptions of numerous madrasas and pathsalas established after the formation of the Delhi Sultanate and, later, during the Mughal era, this book proceeds to discuss the establishment of different medical colleges under the British, and provides insights into the contours of this transformation during colonial times.