Papers by Jayanta Bhattacharya
Doctors' Dialogue, 2026
This paper is in Bengali. It deals with some aspects of anatomical and physiological knowledge co... more This paper is in Bengali. It deals with some aspects of anatomical and physiological knowledge contained in Sushruta Samhita. Quite intriguingly, on nuanced reading, it reveals that during pregnancy a pregnant woman could long to have all kinds of meats - including beef, pork and meats of other animals. Though there remained socially strict prohibitory proscriptions on taking specific kinds of food, especially for the upper hierarchy of the society, the eclectic, open-minded, liberal and rational Ayurvedics did prescribe different meats for the patients, which were not socially allowed.
This is a very fascinating history of layers of the Indian medical literature which can again be explored against present perspective.
India's Indigenous Medical Systems: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach, 2015
Knowledge of the body was no doubt a concern for the Ayurvedic authors. In Caraka Samhitā (CS) —
... more Knowledge of the body was no doubt a concern for the Ayurvedic authors. In Caraka Samhitā (CS) —
śarīravicayah śarīropakārārthamis yate/ jnātvā hi śarīratattvam śarīropakārakaresu bhāvesu jnānamutpadyate / tasmāt śarīravicayam praśamsanti kuśalāh // [Śā, 6.3] (Detailed knowledge of the human body is conducive to the well-being of the individual. Understanding of the factors that constitute the body provides knowledge regarding the factors which are responsible for its well-being. It is because of this that experts extol the knowledge of the details of the body).
Though this passage does not vividly speak of anatomical knowledge, it does point out to the importance of bodily knowledge in Ayurveda. Perhaps the importance of gaining anatomical knowledge cannot be better valued than the editorial of the New England Journal of Medicine. While ‘Looking Back on the Millennium in Medicine’, “The emergence of a comprehensive understanding of the structure and function of the organ systems of the human body stands—without question—as one of the most influential advances of the past millennium . . . Considered together, the work of Vesalius and Harvey provided the intellectual underpinnings for many advances in human anatomy, physiology, clinical medicine, and surgery that followed during the remainder of the millennium.”
Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 2024
The Alma‑Ata Declaration of 1978 was a historic hallmark in the history of public health of the 2... more The Alma‑Ata Declaration of 1978 was a historic hallmark in the history of public health of the 20th century. It stressed on comprehensive primary health care and led to the slogan of “Health for All by 2000 A.D.” The Conference documents made it clear that primary health care was essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound, and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country could afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self‑reliance and self‑determination. It was proclaimed to form an integral part of a country’s health system. In addition, as a consequence, the overall social and economic development of the community depended on its survival. It was regarded as the first level of contact of individuals, the family, and community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work. Instead of disease‑centred vertical programs, it emphasised to adopt the horizontal community‑based programs. Though the worldwide stir caused by the historic Alma‑Ata Conference (1978), giant MNCs of the world remained hibernated for some time but never gave up to turn “health” into “health care” as commodity. Intriguingly enough, health was “forgotten” when the Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted after the First World War. Only at the last moment, world health was included, leading to the Health Section of the League of Nations. Recently, Intergovernmental Negotiating Body has drafted a new Pandemic Treaty which might become disastrous for general well‑being and rightful living for citizens in future. All these observations are very much relevant if family medicine and primary care are given due importance at the present moment.
Doctors' Dialogue, 2025
One of the earliest organizations of human civilization is a hospital. We find descriptions of er... more One of the earliest organizations of human civilization is a hospital. We find descriptions of erecting a hospital seemingly for the wealthy patients of the society in some detail. In this paper in Bengali, I have tried to focus on the hospital in the Caraka-Samhita as well as in ancient, medieval, and premodern India.
It is interesting to note that the Caraka-Samhita had made its journey abroad in the Abbasid Royal Court of Persia. Sanskrit texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. Reverse flow also occurred, and the Arabic and Persian texts were also translated into Sanskrit. There are many nuances in the reading of the Caraka-Samhita. I have tried to explore these nuances.
Calcutta Medical College and the Dispensaries: The Emergence of Modern Public Health in India
Deleted Journal, Apr 16, 2024
Public health is an umbrella term encompassing various professions, policies and programmes that ... more Public health is an umbrella term encompassing various professions, policies and programmes that promote positive community‑wide health outcomes. It is also an interdisciplinary field. Epidemiology is a later incorporation within the ambit of public health. Since ancient times to modernity, the concept of public health has incrementally developed – from personal hygiene, to ‘medical police’ to anti‑sepsis to state intervention, to name a few. But in colonial India, European science, as practised in the metropolis, got ‘refracted’ and, to an extent, ‘mutated’ – not exactly the same metropolitan science. Anderson, quoting Dipesh Chakrabarty, argues that in colonial India the discourse on filth in public spaces was a ‘language of modernity, of civic consciousness and public health, of even certain ideas of beauty related to the management of public space and interests, an order of aesthetics from which the ideals of public health and hygiene cannot be separated’. The expansion of dispensaries and reinforcing these dispensaries by the graduates of the first Asian medical college - Calcutta Medical College - succeeded to fill the gap.
WHO and its transformation – A journey from 1978 to 2024
Journal of family medicine and primary care, May 1, 2024
The Alma‑Ata Declaration of 1978 was a historic hallmark in the history of public health of the 2... more The Alma‑Ata Declaration of 1978 was a historic hallmark in the history of public health of the 20th century. It stressed on comprehensive primary health care and led to the slogan of “Health for All by 2000 A.D.” The Conference documents made it clear that primary health care was essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound, and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country could afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self‑reliance and self‑determination. It was proclaimed to form an integral part of a country’s health system. In addition, as a consequence, the overall social and economic development of the community depended on its survival. It was regarded as the first level of contact of individuals, the family, and community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work. Instead of disease‑centred vertical programs, it emphasised to adopt the horizontal community‑based programs. Though the worldwide stir caused by the historic Alma‑Ata Conference (1978), giant MNCs of the world remained hibernated for some time but never gave up to turn “health” into “health care” as commodity. Intriguingly enough, health was “forgotten” when the Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted after the First World War. Only at the last moment, world health was included, leading to the Health Section of the League of Nations. Recently, Intergovernmental Negotiating Body has drafted a new Pandemic Treaty which might become disastrous for general well‑being and rightful living for citizens in future. All these observations are very much relevant if family medicine and primary care are given due importance at the present moment.
The Knowledge of Anatomy in Ayurveda and Modern Medicine: Colonial Confrontation and Its Outcome
Social Science Research Network, Aug 4, 2008
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2): Transformations in medicine, our existence, and world order?
Journal of family medicine and primary care, 2020
Lord Mountbatten's last supper to public health's last rites – The trajectory of medicine
Journal of family medicine and primary care, 2019
Primary care is the key to health for all
Journal of family medicine and primary care, 2019
The basic question of a health system where to focus primarily - whether on population-based prim... more The basic question of a health system where to focus primarily - whether on population-based primary care or technology and capital-intensive tertiary care and corporate and private hospitals and clinics. We are at crossroads. World experience, including that of technology-intensive US medical care primary care is of dire need.
The genesis of hospital medicine in India: The Calcutta Medical College (CMC) and the emergence of a new medical epistemology
Indian Economic and Social History Review, Apr 1, 2014
The history of the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) is intertwined with the rise of hospital medici... more The history of the Calcutta Medical College (CMC) is intertwined with the rise of hospital medicine and modern medical pedagogy in India. This article will argue that the extension of medicinal practice in India ushered in a new paradigm of knowledge: the singular act of cadaveric dissection introduced indelible changes in the perception of the body and disease. The CMC was constituted by an ensemble of different components—medical teaching at University College London (UCL), the unique surgical practices of the Company’s surgeons and the specificity of a uniquely ‘colonial’ praxis. The transition from military medical training to general medical education involved various processes of acculturation—visual, verbal and psychological. CMC played a key role in the materialisation of public health programmes in colonial India. Consequently, Ayurvedics were caught in a position of simultaneously being ‘modern’ as well as ‘original’. As a result of the interactive process, the western medical toolkit reconstituted the terminologies and practice of Ayurveda so that, epistemologically speaking, they became a variant of modern medicine.
Arogya-Niketan - Chikitsa Bybabsay, Nadi-Vidya, Adhunik Chikitsa O Jnanatattwik Sangram
Social Science Research Network, 2012
ABSTRACT This paper looks into the famous Bengali novel "Arogya-Niketan" of Tar... more ABSTRACT This paper looks into the famous Bengali novel "Arogya-Niketan" of Tarashankar Bandyopaddhyay. How indigenous experiential knowledge of medicine was reconstituted by modern medicine through its unique knowledge of anatomical dissection is the moot question. It also differentiates between the practitioners from the earlier period of Indian independence, who were imbued with the spirit of nationalism and humanly approach, from those of recent times, who are guided more by global financial imperatives. Embodied approach of diagnosis and healing is poised vis-s-vis objective approach of modern medicine.
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Papers by Jayanta Bhattacharya
This is a very fascinating history of layers of the Indian medical literature which can again be explored against present perspective.
śarīravicayah śarīropakārārthamis yate/ jnātvā hi śarīratattvam śarīropakārakaresu bhāvesu jnānamutpadyate / tasmāt śarīravicayam praśamsanti kuśalāh // [Śā, 6.3] (Detailed knowledge of the human body is conducive to the well-being of the individual. Understanding of the factors that constitute the body provides knowledge regarding the factors which are responsible for its well-being. It is because of this that experts extol the knowledge of the details of the body).
Though this passage does not vividly speak of anatomical knowledge, it does point out to the importance of bodily knowledge in Ayurveda. Perhaps the importance of gaining anatomical knowledge cannot be better valued than the editorial of the New England Journal of Medicine. While ‘Looking Back on the Millennium in Medicine’, “The emergence of a comprehensive understanding of the structure and function of the organ systems of the human body stands—without question—as one of the most influential advances of the past millennium . . . Considered together, the work of Vesalius and Harvey provided the intellectual underpinnings for many advances in human anatomy, physiology, clinical medicine, and surgery that followed during the remainder of the millennium.”
It is interesting to note that the Caraka-Samhita had made its journey abroad in the Abbasid Royal Court of Persia. Sanskrit texts were translated into Arabic and Persian. Reverse flow also occurred, and the Arabic and Persian texts were also translated into Sanskrit. There are many nuances in the reading of the Caraka-Samhita. I have tried to explore these nuances.