History & Basics Of Āyurveda

No history of āyurveda, no matter how brief (and this one is very brief and admittedly imperfect), is complete without mentioning the occupation of India by british colonizers. It is considered by many popular texts that this period of occupation lasted from around the year 1000-1947. However, it would be blind and foolish to believe that the effects of that period of occupation ever really ended.  Oppression is very much alive in India today, as it is all over the globe. All areas of the world, including the United States, where indigenous lives continue to be threatened, and colonizer-supremacist ways of being dominate politics and popular culture effect all of us generation after generation.

The period of british occupation led to a great loss of Indigenous Indian culture and written text.  As the british invaders instituted and forced their own systems of medicine, the practice of āyurveda was driven underground.  It became dangerous to practice and heal using these ancient teachings, however families were still passing along the traditions and principles. In 1947, with India's "independence", āyurvedic colleges began to open again, following a model based on western medical practices as a result of the british influence. Traditional āyurveda is still practiced by some in India today.

What we see practiced in the west, and I can speak more specifically about the US since that is where I live, is a white-washed, colonized version of the sacred, indigenous healing practice. Like nearly everything and everyone (myself included) in our current culture, the practice and services offered have been affected by capitalism and whiteness. While there are teachers and organizations working to keep the traditions of this ancient healing science honored and cultivated, it is important to consider how each of us utilizes and shares in our own practice.

Some of my teachers, mentors, and colleagues are from India and studied in India. Some in modern colleges and some through more traditional generation to generation pathways. Some of them are Indian, born and raised in the US, and went to live and study in what they consider their homeland. And there are others who are white humans born and raised in the US, which is the category where I reside.

It matters how each of us shares and represents these teachings and practices. And it matters even more how those of us who are white, westerners (which I am) share and represent these teachings and practices. This is something I think about often and struggle with. I struggle with how to be and share something that has so profoundly affected my relationship to self and the world around me in a way that honors, rather than takes from a lineage I was not born into. A lineage that was forced underground, along with the people who it belongs to, and who risked themselves and their families to continue to practice it. The practices of āyurveda and yoga are indigenous, deeply spiritual ways of being that have been colonized and continue to be white-washed and commercialized. I think the struggle for how to be with this is a worthy one, and one I wish more people who claim to be practitioners of āyurveda and yoga philosophy would consider. I always welcome thoughtful conversation on the subject.