Indian religions are well known in the world. The philosophical systems that emerged on the Indian soil have also engaged the attention of scholars all over the world. India's achievements in the field of science and technology have abo been recognised. However, the fact that India developed a system of medicine, thousands of years ago, has not received wide coverage in the world. And that the system thus developed is still prevalent among the masses of India is likewise not generally known, even to historians of medicine.

There are manifold reasons for this general ignorance of Indian medicine among historians of medicine, medical practitioners outside the country and intelligentsia interested in the problems of health and disease. One is, absence of authoritative and well documented publications in English by Indians, dealing with this branch of medicine. The European indologists who have taken an interest in Indian medicine and have written on the subject do not seem to carry much credibility, because they are alien to the traditional details which are indispensable to the understanding of the spirit, outlook and value of Indian medicine. The literature available on this topic written in the traditional style of Indian languages have proved to be enigmatic to the modern reader. A great need is, therefore, felt for an authentic publication which communicates to the modern mind the traditional wisdom of India concerning medical practice.

The Encyclopaedia of Indian Medicine in six volumes has been planned to fulfil this need. The first volume provides the historical perspective as well as acquaintance with the medical literature in India. The volume has been pre- pared by Vidyalankara Prof. S.K. Ramachandra Rao, who hails from a family of traditional physicians and is the President of the Ayurveda Academy. Bangalore. Besides being a Sanskrit scholar and well versed in Ayurveda, he has also been a scientific worker, having headed the department of Clinical Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore (with which he is still associated as consultant to the Ayurvedic Research Unit).

Indigenous medical wisdom in India known as Ayurveda goes back to a hoary past. Even in the early strands of the Vedic corpus belonging to a period several centuries prior to the Christian era, we find references not only to medical practice but to elaborate medical theories. Medical wisdom in India was systematized at a slightly later period, and a remarkably rich medical literature has grown up since those days. Medical practice based on this systematization has continued to our own day, despite the growing popularity of Western medical practice.

Indian medical wisdom has unfortunately been confined to India, and the West is largely ignorant of it. Even in India, the traditional medical practice seems to be losing contact with the system as it was crystallized over two thousand years ago. This is so because much of the early and core medical literature, which is in Sanskrit, is still in manuscripts, hidden away in libraries and private collections; only a few major texts like Charaka's Samhita, Suśru- ta's Sarkhita and Vagbhata's Sangraha and Hedaya have been printed and translated into English. The influence of the philosophical systems, especially of Samkhya and Nyaya-Vaiśeshika, on medical thought in India has not been sufficiently appreciated. The generation of practising physicians who are also scholarly has almost disappeared. Thus the authentic tradition of Indian medical thought has not yet been presented to the modern mind. The medical world at large is almost entirely ignorant of the relevance or the value of Ayurveda.

The present series of volumes constituting The Encyclopaedia of Indian Medicine is an attempt to present in a manner that would appeal to the modern mind the theoretical and practical issues as was formulated in Ayurveda several centuries ago. In so doing, we have relied entirely on original texts, which constitute the nucleus of Ayurveda, and on the commentarial literature thereupon, and have attempted to reconstruct the authentic perspective of Ayurveda The following volumes have been planned and are. under preparation