Well-Mannered Medicine: Medical Ethics and Etiquette in Classical Ayurveda

This book explores the moral discourses on medical practice in the primary texts of Ayurveda. The classical Ayurvedic treatises were written in Sanskrit between the first and seventh centuries AD, and later works, dating to the sixteenth century AD, are still considered strongly authoritative. As Wujastyk shows, these works attest to an elaborate system of medical ethics and etiquette. Ayurvedic discourses on good medical practice portray the physician as highly educated, skilled, moral and well-mannered. The rules of conduct located doctors in the mainstream of society and characterised the practice of medicine as a trustworthy and socially acceptable profession. At the same time, professional success largely depended on the individual doctor and his or her ability to treat patients. This caused tension, as certain therapies and medicines were considered socially or religiously unacceptable, doctors had to treat their patients effectively, ostensibly by following the rules of acceptable behaviour.