Somatic lessons : narrating patienthood and illness in Indian medical literature / Anthony Cerulli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cerulli, Anthony Michael.

Series:

SUNY series in Hindu studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine, Ayurvedic--History.

Medicine, Ayurvedic.

History.

Medical literature--India--History and criticism.

Medical literature.

Sanskrit literature--History and criticism.

Sanskrit literature.

India.

Physical Description:

xviii, 211 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2012]

Summary:

In ayurvedic medical practice, the ways in which and the reasons why people become ill are often explained with stories. This book explores the forms and functions of narrative in Ayurveda, India's classical medical system. Looking at narratives concerning fever, miscarriage, and the so-called king's disease, Anthony Cerulli examines how the medical narrative shifts from clinical to narrative discourse and how stories from religious and philosophical texts are adapted to the medical framework. Cerulli discusses the ethics of illness that emerge and offers a genealogy of patienthood in Indian cultural history. Using Sanskrit medical sources, the book excavates the role, and ultimately the centrality, of Hindu religious thought and practice to the development of Indian medicine in the classical era up to the eve of British colonialism. In addition to its cultural and historical contributions to South Asian Studies, the medical narratives discussed in the book contribute fresh perspectives on medicine and ethics in general and, in particular, notions of health and illness. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction: Narrativlzing the Body 1

Intended Audience 10

Plan of the Book 11

Chapter 2 The Patient's Body in Indian Medical Literature 13

Medical Context and Organization 17

Bodytalk I: Diseases, Prognoses, and Therapies 18

Bodytalk II: The Three Humors 24

Medical Storytelling 29

Sources of Ayurveda: Carakasamhita and Susrutasamhita 33

Is there an Ayurvedic Way of Thinking (about the Body)? 40

Chapter 3 Fever 49

The Narrative of Fever 51

The Structure of Fever in Narrative Discourse 54

Fever in Brief Historical Outline 59

Fever and Attachment 63

Fever and Rudra's Anger 66

Chapter 4 Miscarriage 73

Text-Historical Framework of the Kasyapasamhita 74

Compendium Contents 78

Definitional Issues 79

The Narrative of Miscarriage 80

Character Sketches 82

From Heaven to Earth, from Goddess to Avatar 86

Reality and Experience: Men Attending to Women's Bodies 94

Nature versus Nurture 101

Chapter 5 The King's Disease 105

Terminology 106

The Narrative of the King's Disease 107

Regal and Mythic History 109

Astral and Terrestrial Observations 111

The Royal Patient 118

Chapter 6 The Joy of Life of Anandarayamakhin 123

The Joy of Life in Context 123

The Narrative Trajectory of The Joy of Life 128

The King's Disease and The Joy of Life 132

pravrtti-nivrtti/Vijñanasarman-Jñanasarman 139

Within the Walls of the Lotus City 144

Chapter 7 Conclusion: Medical Narratives and the Narrativtzed Patient 147

Medical Storytelling and Somatic Lessons 150

The Narrativized Patient 154.

Notes:

Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.), University of Chicago, Faculty of the Divinity School, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438443874

1438443870

OCLC:

767825001