Methods

The methods of socio-cultural studies, mainly through literature survey, have been employed to unravel the role and situation of medicine inancient India with specifc focus on Kerala’s Ezhava community.
● Much insight into the Ezhava medical system of ancient Kerala has been obtained from the descriptions provided in the late 17th century botanical treatise Hortus Malabaricus authored by Hendrik van Rheede.
● Historical documents and legislations of the British colonial period and of independent India have been examined before arriving at any conclusions related to the current weakened status of folk medical practice and its loss of legitimacy.
● A case study on folk medicine has been carried out to examine its contemporary status in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, towards the centre of South Indian west coast. The study was carried out under the support from Karnataka Biodiversity Board (KBB).
● The purpose of the study in Uttara Kannada was explained through the media, Prior Informed Consent of the folk healers taken, before commencing interviews with them on details of their folk healing practices. The details of the formulations explained by the healers who participated in the exercise (46 persons) are systematically documented and the same passed on to the KBB for safe custody.
● The provisions of the Biodiversity Act, 2002, and Biodiversity Rules, 2004 of the Government of India have been examined and explored to see whether any scope exists for steering out genuine folk medical practices back into legitimacy with stress on documentation and certifcation by local bodies within the framework of the Act.

Uttara Kannada is the northern most coastal district of Karnataka, situated south of Goa State. Large parts of the district are covered with hills of the Western Ghats, which are at the lowest, seldom exceeding 600 to 700 m in height. The coastal zone is narrow and rugged, its continuity interrupted with low hills and sprawling backwaters at the confluence of westward running rivers with the Arabian Sea. The district is clad in a variety of forests ranging from tropical evergreen to moist deciduous and dry deciduous kinds, the latter bordering the drier Deccan Plateau. A large number of human communities, traditionally engaged in agriculture (including shifting cultivation in the past) and horticulture, cattle keeping, forest produce gathering, fsher-folks and traders of Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities live in this district, which is a blend of modernity in the towns and rustic life in the villages. Forests being everywhere (almost covering 70% of Uttara Kannada’s 10,200 km² area), and villages nestled in the valleys, and with an extensive coastline of sandy beaches and rocky shores, all rich in characteristic vegetation, the people have strong traditions of folk medicine, which despite dominance of modern biomedicine and Ayurveda next in order, continue to be the recourse for good percentage of the population. The folk healers were interviewed on their ethnomedical practice during January 2015, under the aegis of the KBB.