1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910966822603321

Autore

Cerulli Anthony Michael

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albany, : State University of New York Press, 2012

ISBN

9781461918004

1461918006

9781438443881

1438443889

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (231 p.)

Collana

SUNY series in Hindu studies.

SUNY series in Hindu studies

Disciplina

615.5/38

Soggetti

Medicine, Ayurvedic - History

Medical literature - India - History and criticism

Sanskrit literature - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

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

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: Narrativizing The Body -- The Patient's Body In Indian Medical Literature -- Fever -- Miscarriage -- The King's Disease -- The Joy of Life of ĀNandarāYamakhin -- Conclusion: Medical Narratives and The Narrativized Patient.

Sommario/riassunto

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 Āyurveda, 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.