- Rendering the patient’s diet and regimen appropriate to the ecologi-
cal conditions.
While ancient Greco-Latin science produced the model of knowledge
called natural history, based on classification of species according to em-
pirically grounded distinctions, the concern of Indian taxonomy was the
dietetic and therapeutic qualities of the land and its inhabitants.
Åyurveda’s concept of the person places the human being within a context
of ‘biogeography,’ an aspect of the broader register of knowledge called
pharmacy. Pharmacy presupposes a whole cosmic physiology: the great
chain of foods where living beings—eaters and eaten—transmit to one an-
other the nourishing essences of the soil. Pharmacy then leads to a super-
ior register of knowledge: physiology, which in the ancient sense embraces
... the circulation of fluids in the surrounding world, the rise of sap in
plants, the aroma that is given off by the cooking of different kinds of
meats, and finally the interplay of different humors within the body.^80
While Åyurveda utilizes concepts of the person based to a great extent on
S ̄amkhya and VaiÓ Óse ́sika metaphysics, the person as the subject of medical
science is regarded within a context of the web of life. Åyurveda as
‘knowledge of life’ refers not just to individual human life, but to the
whole of living nature, and the countless pathogenic and therapeutic fac-
tors influencing human health.
‘Life’ in the context of individual health-maintenance embraces
more than biological life sustained by medical science. Åyurveda pro-
vides a system of hygiene incorporating such factors as diet and seasonal
regimen, cleanliness and physical purification, and cultivation of knowl-
edge and attitudes that sustain well-being. Knowledge of lifein Åyurveda
strongly concerns hygiene (Gk. hygienos:‘healthful’), the study and prac-
tice of preserving health and preventing illness. Compared with the dra-
matic achievements of medical science, the idea of hygiene as a significant
part of health-care is often considered to be on the level of archaic folk
remedies. Åyurveda’s systematic and sophisticated theory of hygiene
counters such a view. Granted, contemporary scientific medicine makes
remarkable contributions to human well-being, but hygiene remains
foundational to health, and the power of medical science to prevent and
treat medical problems doesn’t replace the simple procedures of protect-
ing and cultivating one’s vitality. Furthermore, scientific medicine is con-
cerned primarily with disease, and its theoretical basis gives insufficient
attention to promoting health as a positive state.
40 religious therapeutics