PARASITIC INFECTIONS IN THOSE OLD DAYS OF PRE-INDEPENDENT INDIA

What was the life style of an ordinary Indian in Pre-Independent India ? There is  literature in our historical books narrating India being "sone ki chiriya" prior british rajya and how we were deprived of the wealth by destroying our handicrafts. There is great literature about all the wars and battles fought against Mughals and Britons but there is no way to know how an ordinary person was living, travelling , educating, getting services etc. Therefore, it is much interesting to know about these facts even at the start of twentieth century- much later than ancient India . We can peeve those conditions by reading an autobiography written by Dr SS Prabhu as mentioned below :

Days of struggle and hope life and times of Dr S S Prabhu (kogan)

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY DR S S PRABHU Ex head of Animal Genetics,IVRI,Izatnagar, Ex Dean College of Animal Sciences, ( H.A.U.Hissar, Haryana) Acknowledgement by Shri RS Prabhu (his son) ,Dated 15.05.2014 Mangalore

It may be said safely that in those days there was a great gap in our culture and those of English persons. Unlike to present days, we have not adopted their dress, living ,conditions etc. These were the days of second world war and living or getting service, even by graduates, was a difficult task- unemployment among educated persons was rampant.  The houses were mostly of mud, kitchen having great place and every house has a cattle shed.There was not many toys and  children were passing time by watching nature,  moving cycle tyre or playing where no toys are needed and  gossiping etc  Even going to schools/college   was either in half pant or pyajama and kurta/kameej and persons remained barefoot. Roads were not Tar coal and having many pots; the bus in those days took more than 4 hours to cover a distance of 16 miles. Mostly ,Persons were covering the distance either on foot or on the bullock cart. Importantly, persons were also using ferry ,water rout , to travel from Mangalore to Mumbai which was more comfortable than road rout. 

There was a great problem of diseases ; Ashma ,TB, typhoid were the conditions where it was difficult for the person to get rid of in his life time. 

Even parasitic diseases are a great problem. Malaria was a recurrent problem . Elephantiasis was causing deformities thereby creating marriage problems for young girls. 

There was an inferiority complex also among Indians and this is the reason why we have not tried to search  our home tried drugs as Dr Prabhu is mentioning how his aunt was able to cure him permanently by using a home grown plant.

I have taken out below material, related to parasitic infections from the autobiography  as described by Dr Prabhu. I am thankful to his son Shri RS Prabhu, an engineer by profession , settled at Mangalore, after retirement , who provided me hard copy of the autobiography.

MALARIA (page 29)

"When I think of the poor and indifferent health care present during my childhood, I often wonder how we at all survived. Malaria was a regular visitor so as to speak.Suddenly, one developed shivers and felt cold ,which failed to be relieved through use of any number of blankets. Then came high temperature that remained for 14 hours with sudden dropping at the end which left your body perspiring. It took couples of owels ( or towels) to dry you and then you felt weak. You felt hungry. The next day you are normal. The following day it started once again its depredations. I was a regular victim of malaria for a long time and consumed so much quinine that at time I nearly went deaf. I used to get fever in the school when the teacher will send me home with as escort. This fever bothered me so much that it was very much there when I went to Mangalore after the floods and joined Canara High School for my studies. A couple of times I got shivers in the class and came home. I was given the standard medicine which worked for a while and then it started again.

Then Shambakka,s mother in law took charge. She had contempt for allopathy. She told me to forget about the drug her son have given me to be taken. She would give me her medicine and it should drive away the disease for good. Then she went down and got hold of some leaves of some plants that grew in the compound and using liberal amount of garlic made a fine decoxation that I was to take for couple of days. This I did and the Malaria that bothered me for a long time disappeared for good and never visited me again.

I do not know whether this is just coincidence or whether there was real punch in the medicine. The plants, she used for preparation the potion (decoxation) used to be found in plenty round about the house compound earlier,but now they have disappeared.

The inferiority complex has taken such a deep root in our mind that we have no pride in our own ancient medicine,even when as in my case , it produced good results. They never bothered to take a second look at the native medicine ,analyse it scientifically and find what is the active principle in it that produce positive results" (autobiography page 29- I GET GYPOID)

ELEPHANTIASIS (page 53)

" Raman master was the kindergarten teacher of Canara High School. He was a deeply religious man and daily in the evening bhajans would go on for hours at his house..... At the time I knew them Raman master's mother had a mild attack of elephantiasis. His brother had a severe form that made his two legs swell. Swelling would increase each time he got fever and recovered. Under the stress of the fever she used to utter loud shouts that I would hear in my upstairs room in the Subba Shetty bungalow.

Sometime I too would take part in the bhajans which on certain auspicious days went on and on, and prevented me from concentrating on my studies. This teacher wanted to make me his son-in-law, but it got no encrouragement. Bhavaji used to visit Raman master's place and it will not be a surprise that it was from that place he got his infection of elephant legs that became a major problem for him in later life. His daughter Vasanthi too got it from him. Luckily for her Dr Kini's prompt treatment prevented it from growing furhter and only one foot was swollen a bit. That came in the way of her marriage as wherever they tried , the bridegroom party baulked at thegirl with the swollen leg ! Vaikunta Baliga too had a daughter with a similar problem. But he had enough money so that he could get rid of her by paying big dowry! Where will our poor school teacher get that kind of dough? One good thing for which we had to be thankful was that others who slept in the same house as Bhavaji and Vasanthi did not contract the disease ( but in above para, Dr Prabhu has mentioned that both Bhavaji and Vasanthi developed elephantiasis). Raman master too got the infection and so did Vishwanath master  who use to visit his place. Both got such swollen legs that they could not move properly .It was a horrible sight to see them"

BED BUG ( Page69,  70)

"....Respite came in the form of an offer to get me a seat  in the old hostel by Babli's husband Prof VD Dabholkar which I readily accepted and moved into the old hostel- a place made up of wood and full of bugs! They used to reside in the cot notches, come out at night as soon as the lights went off at 9.30 and start attacking people who were asleep. Some had got so much used to be bitten by the bugs that they never woke up and continued to sleep. One could see the bugs attacking their body and they were still fast asleep.

"One disadvantage that the old hostel possessed was the presence of bed bugs of which there was a huge supply. They could never be eradicated with the method followed then- namely to take out the cots ,shake them and put them in the sun. This I did regularly.I would then hunt for them and kill them by burning them or applying oil to the body.The problem is no one knew where they hid as they are invisible during the day. Once the lights were off they would emerge from their hideouts and attack their prey. I noticed that they would crawl up and stay on the roof of the rooms. The roof was made of wood and so one cannot detect hidden bugs there. But as the lights went off at night , they would drop onto the bed like bombs let loose from an airplane and proceed to attack their victims. In due course I too got used to getting bitten by the bugs same as other hostel mates and did not notice them. In the morning I would see the tiny bite marks. On summer days one simply took one's bedding, spread the same on the front lawn and went to sleep there. The hostel had no fans !"

I have observed with interest that there is no mention about havoc created by mosquitoes by Dr Prabhu in his autobiography. As we know now that both above parasitic diseases, malaria and elephantiasis, spread by the bite of mosquitoes but no mention of this fact is suggesting that transmission of these diseases was still not clear in those times. His mentioning of bed bugs and problems by them  and frequent recurrence of malaria further substantiates my contention.

It may not be out of place to mention that within this hundred years, a tremendous difference may be observed in treatment of above diseases. We have so many broad spectrum antibiotics , to fought TB and typhoid. You are well aware that this year the noble prize is awarded to one Chinese scientist for treatment of malaria and two other scientists for filariasis, - elephantiasis is a type of filariasis. 

NEED OF CONCLUDING PANCH GAVYA THERAPY IN PRESENT TIME

         

I was avoiding writing on Panch Gavya  (means therapeutic use of milk, curd , ghee, urine and dung of cow origin for curing ailments ) , an old Ayurvedic therapy encrypted in Indian Vedas, as I do not know Sanskrit to understand the subject correctly. Secondly, our central council for research in  Ayurveda and Siddha , (Department of Ayush) GOI etc  appear little interested to participate in discussion of the ancient subject in light of modern science. My this assumption rests on my posting “ Schistosomiasis, small pox and malaria in ancient times”  (dated 5^th May,2015) on my blog www.indianschistosomiasis.blogspot.com  and no answer on use of “inoculation” for small pox in ancient India from any authorities of the above council etc . We are well aware that prior development of “Vaccination” by Jenner , a British doctor, inoculation method was in practice in India and this was transferred to Europe by the Arabs; However, there are many questions ,raised in my post , to be answered , if we really wish to take credit of this old practice of India and reply rests on searching our old sculptures which are either in Sanskrit or in Brahmi (older language than Sanskrit ) hence an expert in that language will do justice . My request went unnoticed with the President and other executives of the organizations.

Other reason of my reluctance is that the subject is hyped emotionally where any scientific discussion may not be possible . However, the subject is important ; moreover  new Veterinary Universities are coming up in India, many of them are given the mandate to work on development of indigenous cow breeds and some are directed to make Panch Gavya research centers ( like Chhattisgarh Kamdhenu Vishwa Vidyalaya, Durg) hence it becomes important  to view the subject in its right perspective.

As I have said earlier, I am not knowing Sanskrit hence all my discussion depends on general perceptions and also on two books on Panch Gavya published  in Hindi by Govigyan Anusanthan Kendra, Kamdhenu Bhavan ,Nagpur 440032 ( email gauseva@yahoo.co.in  ; gauvigyan@gmail.com ; website www.govigyan.com ). They have given a long list of projects run by various prestigious  institutes with Go Vigyan Anusanthan Kendra, Nagpur but have failed to provide references, if any publications are made by these efforts.  Obviously, such work can not be accepted by scientific community when we do not have assess to their work and their results.

As is practiced in true scientific research , I may mention “ Na kahu se dosti , na kahu se bair” hence this discussion should be taken in that spirit . My only wish is that this Panch Gavya  therapy should be investigated in its right perspective . As said in our “Bhagvat Geeta”  our right is on our work without knowing its results ; we don’t know what will come out after scientific investigations .

COW  EPICENTER OF ANCIENT ECONOMY : In our old scripts  cow was epicenter of  almost all human activities ; it was most important in  ancient agrarian  economy  and referred as “Kamdhenu” the object of fulfilling all the wishes .  Even in present time ,there is  belief in some segments that if we put cow in the center ,we may attain best economy of the world; perhaps this is far fetched idea. This is because they fail to recognize the developments that took place centuries, thereafter . Presently, all where agriculture is not epicenter of  economy though countries like Denmark, Netherland  depend largely on animal husbandry .However, there is a vast difference in animal husbandry practices between our and these countries. Presently our animals are maintained mainly by land less or small farmers on agriculture wastes  while that will require shift of cow to well organized large farms ( maintained mainly by  industrialists) on high diet and new technologies that may snatch cow husbanding from poor farmers to rich industrialists . Here, I may cite a good example of Poultry development in India. Earlier, it was a backyard activity of house wife or rural woman providing  her some extra income   whereas  it is now  shifted to large poultry farms being maintained by big houses with no share  to these poor persons .

In present circumstances ,  it will be more prudent if we are able to impress our farmers that instead of using tractors they should use bullocks for farming and bullock carts for carrying the goods and even persons ; likewise  they should use vermicompost or cow manure instead of chemical fertilizers . This can be achieved only with a great will power and protest against the industries which are depending on tractors and chemical fertilizers . No doubt, a devoted drive in this direction  will result in debt ridden farmers to live in a better life than always taking loans and may place cow in its right place in rural economy . It is a bitter fact that our Indian farmers  have dislodged   cow in their present  agriculture practices hence this neglect for cow all over the country ( buffaloes are being used for milk production even in the farms of well to do farmers).

INDIGENOUS OR CROSS BRED COW : If you read out above two books, they are emphasizing that Panch Gavya should be from an indigenous cow and not from a videshi or cross bred cow.  Obviously, in ancient times we were having only indigenous cow hence their products were employed in the therapy. Though the books emphasize to use indigenous cow for Panch Gavya, they have not provided any scientific reference which substantiate their arguments. Again , they are prescribing prior conditions for collection ;even they prevent to use urine and dung from vaccinated cows for 3 days. As per our knowledge, vaccine may affect milk of the animal but not urine or dung unless proved otherwise.

It will be prudent to support these claims by biochemical studies of Indigenous and cross bred cows as well as their products. One has to discover biochemical molecules present in different cows under different conditions and which molecules are beneficial and which are contradictory.   Whether, the cross bred cow are devoid of beneficial molecules or its milk possesses some contradictory substance that may hinder good effects of the therapy. Again , as admitted in the book , there are more than 15 Indigenous cow breeds and if they claim that only Indigenous cow should be used for Panch Gavya therapy, argumentably it is possible that these indigenous breeds differ in milk constituents thereby leading different effects on the ailments.

PANCH GAVYA  A FOOD OR MEDICINE :   Presently , the eatable items have been divided in two categories. One is drugs or medicines which are taken in specific quantities, certainly lesser than your food items, and if taken more by mistake , it has wide side effects, even may lead  to death. On the other hand, eatables are those products that may be consumed in larger quantities and are required for maintaining our life . If we examine Panch gavya on these criteria, they are eatables ,particularly milk, curd and ghee. Therefore, it is difficult to put them under drugs. Generally, some eatable items may be good for our health while others may not be so. For example ‘Amwala” is a fruit which is termed “Amratya” at many places and this has been considered a very important health tonic in Ayurveda . Our Rishi Chavyan emphasized its importance in human health and we are having in his name ‘Chawanprayas’.

Other important difference between the drug and eatery is while drugs are prescribed for specific ailments, eatery are recommended  in general in all ailments- they are known to enhance our immunological system.  If you refer the above published books this Panch Gavya is recommended in so many maladies ; obviously this may prove 100% effective in only limited ailments and unless and until we will not identify  these specific ailments , modern medicine may not accept its claims . If we wish to use Panch Gavya as medicine, it is necessary to analyze the ingredients and to concentrate them to enhance their therapeutic effect .

COW URINE AS INSECTICIDE : Either alone or in combination with Neem Patti  ,cow urine is claimed a very effective insecticide which is able to kill agriculture pests but protecting  the good insects. This statement requires two explanations. What is the effect of individual ingredient as pesticide and how it synchronizes the effects of other  pesticide- whether there is formation of a new product ?  

Obviously, this statement carries no weight age in scientific language. It will be important  to identify the molecule which is acting as insecticide and how it is combining with neem leaves. Again,  we have to identify which insects or pests are killed and at what stage (larva, pupa ,imago ) and which insects (good for farming) are resistant to this insecticide.

COW MANURE : Like other subjects, the book  has also mentioned different types of cow manures; the one vermicompost is much popular and need not to elaborate but the book also mention some other type of manures. Among them, I wish to mention about ‘Samadhi Khad” which is prepared by burying dead body of the cow (male also or only female?) with salt ; the soil , recovered after considerable time ( period not mentioned) is a good manure and is termed as Samadhi khad. Again, there is no mention about the crops where these different manures have been tried and given excellent results. I think work may be carried out with this Samadhi khad as  this will prove a by –product with out much investment and may be carried away vigorously . However, these manures should be tried in various seasons on different crops to find their best effect.    

My above discussion throw light that the subject requires complete scientific investigations , using modern equipments and techniques  to separate the active ingredients in Panch Gavya which are effective either for enhancing our general immune system, body health, or effective against particular diseases ; urine is to be tested against harmful and useful insects and different types of manures are to be investigated to see their best effect on specific crops in specific seasons . Without undertaking such work and publishing them in important scientific journals ,  it is very difficult to convince use of Panch Gavya as a remedy for all diseases or use of urine as best insecticide .    

OUR CHANGING EDUCATION PATTERN

It is heartening that we are changing our old education system slowly  and trying to renovate some thing new which should be beneficial to our new generation. We have changed our annual examination system with  semester system, though there is the need to remove shortcomings of this system.

As per paper news (27th August,2015) Rajeev Gandhi Technology University (RGPV), Bhopal ( that regulates all engineering colleges of Madhya Pradesh) is experimenting to inculcate book reading habits among the engineering students. Initially, the university has selected ten books; student will select any of these books and will write his observations on the book in each semester and in four years duration he has to earn 180 marks. The students will be evaluated on the basis of assignment and interview. Hopefully this will give incentives for reading and writing to our students. The books are as follows  

1.The experiments with truth (M.K.Gandhi)               2. The Argumentative Indian ( Amratya Sen )

3. Wings of fire ( Dr APJ Kalam)                              4. A passage to India  (E M Foster)

5.Theory of Everything (Hawkins )                            6. The Alchemist  (Paul Koila )

7.The old man and the sea (Urnest Hamingway)        8. Life of Pie        (Yen Martel)

Our professional education is best world over  with regards to imparting knowledge of the subject to the students . However, it fissile out when students are assessed on the basis of their arguments, new ideas, or application of the knowledge ; in that sense European countries are ahead to our system and if we wish to make advances in science , a culmination of both will be best.

Many senior teachers , while imparting post graduate teaching to science, medical , engineering students have observed that our students even after completing the courses are unaware about history of their subject - both at world level as well as that of India. If our students will not read books/papers of our past scientists how they  will  understand  India problems .

Though very few, yet there are some books in the market like 

Climbing to the ladder - by CNR Rao  , Jagdish Chandra Bose , Remembering Dr SC Dutt ; the Parasitologist etc

And  far away from India, Dr Alok Kumar, Professor of Physics, New York University is writing on ancient Indian science contributions without which no progress could have been made (pl see my blog "Modern science would be ...dated 30th March,2015) in modern science.

There is need that our education controllers like ICAR, VCI , ICMR, UGC , HRD  should recognize that studying history of the subject is essential if we wish to advance our sciences. These organizations should gather book information from the publishers/market and make every university compulsory to have these books in their library and students should be encouraged to write briefs about the book and achievements of the scientists under bare minimum conditions. 

  

DR B.S. GILL, PAU

I am reproducing a write up which I have received from Prof PS Banerjee, Editor in Chief, Journal of Veterinary Parasitology. I had a chance to meed this distinguished scientist only once in my life time and that is narrated afterwards :

Dr. Bakhsish Singh Gill, 80, of Ludhiana, died on September 4, 2010, at home, attended by his family. Dr. B.S. Gill was born on 1^st September, 1925 ( or 21 December,1925). He attended Punjab University for his B.V. Sc. and M.V.Sc .programme, where he established records by passing the degrees with distinctions. He completed his Ph.D. in 1959 (or 1969) from Agra University. Dr. Gill believed in the value of education and he did his post doctoral at Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical medicine, London (1963-64) and Wellcome Research Laboratories, Beckenham, England 1978-79. Dr. Gill worked as Protozoologist at IVRI (1955-1971) before he began his second career as Epidemiologist-cum-joint Director Research at PAU (1971-74). Having served with the PAU, he remained Dean, College of Veterinary Science (1974-83) and Director of Research (Veterinary & Animal Science; 1983-85). After retirement from PAU he joined as Scientific Advisor to Merc Sharp & Dohme-Agrivet in India (1986-91) followed by Consultant, Dynamic Pharmacals Ltd. Bombay (1991-94). He was the recipient  of several medals and awards including Indian Council of Agricultural Research Fellowship (1952-54), Nuffield Foundation London Fellowship (1963-64) and Royal Society London Bursary (1978-79).  Dr. Gill cherished his family, friends and community. He was elected  Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National academy of Sciences. He remained Expert consultant FAO/UN on tick borne diseases. He represented India as an expert or invited speaker in International conferences and scientific meetings at London, Edinburg, Nairobi, Rome and Baghdad. Dr. Gill has conducted research on various aspects of applied Parasitology. The diseases extensively studied were tick borne infections, trypanosomosis, coccidiosis and helminthosis.  (He recorded the occurrence in India of two important diseases viz. malignant catarrhal fever of bovines and enzootic calcinosis of sheep linked with soil mineral imbalance) He published 123 original research papers in international periodicals, two research monographs and added a new chapter on enzootic calcinosis to the Merck Veterinary Manual, 1978. His researches have been extensively quoted in international literature and have been highly commended at national and international levels.(He served as member ofseveral committees of ICAR and Government of India, concerned with animal health and veterinary education ) His words of encouragement and affirmation will be treasured by those he touched and knew. The story answers many questions, but raises many more. The book (whether there is any book related to Dr Gill ? if any one is aware, please provide all the details ,as comments on this blog ) promises to move your heart as it reveals the dynamic career of this brilliant scientist. He will be remembered for his work, dedication, his poise, his compassion and his generosity. Entire parasitology fraternity remembers and pays tributes to him.
(matter in parentheses have been taken from the fellow book of Indian Science Academy,New Delhi) *********************************************************************************************

This is the event of late eighties when Dr Gill retired from PAU and have joined some Pharmaceutical firm as Consultant. He was working on hump-sore ,caused by Stephanofilaria assamensis, and has published a research paper on chemotherapy on the hump-sore in some foreign journal . Anyhow, he came to know that I have worked for my Master's degree on different aspects of ear-sore, caused by Stephanofilaria zaheeri under Dr SC Dutt. He contacted Dr HL Shah, who was at that time Professor and Head of Parasitology and asked about the information. I informed him that at Jabalpur, we are having large animal slaughter house where its easy to collect affected buffalo's ears and their processing result in recovery of adult male, female, S.zaheeri along with developing larval stages.Dr Gill made his tour program for Jabalpur, stayed in Kalchuri hotel (which is near our college) ; I went to the hotel to meet him for a courtesy call. I found this retired scientist possessing the quality of mixing with much junior , young Parasitologist very casually . The slaughtering was occurring in the evening hence I requested him to come in the department in the evening to show the detailed procedure. Next day, in the morning, we were able to collect a good number of the nematodes with larval stages ; the stereoscopic microscope helped in collecting larvae and we demonstrated how we can collect microfilariae from skin scrapings .
It is important to remember Professor Gill as an icon of Indian Parasitology. First because of  his contributions in Protozoology. Though surra or Trypanosoma evansi was  discovered in 1880 from India by a British Scientist (Griffith George Evans), the first monograph on Trypanosomiasis was written by Dr HN Ray- perhaps in 1954. Dr Gill extensively worked on surra while he was at IVRI and provided important new findings. He published monograph on trypanosomiasis two times -first in 1977 and second in 1991. 
When he was at PAU he started working on tropical theileriosis ,caused by Theileria annulata and he was the pioneer to  develop culture vaccines in India against theileriasis .As referred above his expertise was recognized internationally and he was invited at different forum to air his views. 
Another important quality in Dr Gill was that he was a good administrator; here I do not mean good for being able to carry over his work. He was a good administrator as he did good for veterinary profession as well as for Parasitology. The one example comes when he persuaded Dr SC Dutt to leave ADG post of ICAR and join PAU as Professor and Head of the newly created department of Parasitology.  Dr Gill did all the best to retain Dr Dutt at PAU, provided bungalow in the campus and helped to establish a laboratory where he could work ,even after his retirement . Dr Dutt  completed his monograph on Paramphistomes but that could not be published in his life time and this monograph could see the light with the help of Dr Gill.
Dr Gill also enriched PAU with different schemes  in Parasitology which were responsible for applied research work needed for the state.The Parasitology science desires such scientists who not only conduct good research work but becomes instrumental to create a second line of researchers so that work should continue.... Dr Gill, Dr Dutt, Dr Pande are few such examples.

MODERN SCIENCE WOULD BE UNRECOGNIZABLE WITHOUT CONTRIBUTIONS OF INDIANS

This is the news item published in "The Hitavada, "Jabalpur dated 30th March 2015 which I am reproducing for giving a thought by our fellow Veterinarians and Indian Parasitologists .

Asserting that modern science would be unrecognizable without the contributions of ancient Indian scientists like Aryabhata and Sushruta, a noted Indian American scientist has rued that there is a concerned effort to ignore these figures, whose contributions to science is at par, if not more than those of Pythagoras and Aristotle.

"Just imagine erasing the name of Pythagoras, Aristotle and Plato from the current philosophy texts because it is an old past.Will it be just and fair? The answer is no.However, this is exactly the case when we ignore our own heroes, Aryabhata,Kanad,Varahmihir,Brahmgupta,Charak and Sushruta in India, unjustly" Alok Kumar ,a Professor of Physics at the State University of New York at Oswego ,told to PTI. Dr Alok Kumar was born and educated in India and author of two books that documents the contribution of ancient Hindu scientist to the modern day science including "Sciences of the Ancient Hindus" which was released last year. His third book "A history of Science in World Cultures: Voices of Knowledge" is due this year.

 "Modern science and medicine would be unrecognisable ,and far more premitive ,without the immense contribution of the ancient Hindus.The ancient Hindus also developed a sophisticated system of medicine with its mind-body approach known as Ayurveda ;detailed anatomical and surgical knowledge of the human body including cataract surgery ,metallurgical methods of extraction and purification of metals ,knowledge of various constellations and planetary motions that was good enough to assign motion to the earch and the science of yoga" Kumar said.

Certainly, this is an important topic to explore by our Indian scientists. Those who are interested in our ancient science may log in the site of Prof Alok Kumar http;// sites.google.com/a/oswego.edu/kumar/research/sci-med-world and investigate what Indian manuscripts were present in the Great Library in Alexandria in Egypt and what were their contents ....

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VETERINARY SCIENCE/PARASITOLOGY IN ANCIENT INDIA

This news item compelled me to think if we have tried to search the achievements in veterinary profession and on parasitic diseases in our ancient times.

It is important to mention that our Veterinary Council of India has recommended to teach the students about History of Veterinary Science as well as history of the particular subject. Perhaps , by stating this dictate, they mean history of European veterinary science (Indian history only of last centuries when British scientists started vety practice in India ) . We should not forget that our BVSc degree allows the veterinarians to practice using Allopathic medicines and by clause they are not entitled to use Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy for curing animal ailments. We should have taken up the matter to international forums why veterinarians should not research on other sciences for curing our animals.I think this is the time to give a serious look over these issues by the peers of Indian veterinary professions.

History tells us that this was the great King "Ashoka" who opened veterinary hospitals for treating the animals. At that time more attention was paid on Elephants and Horses as they were part and parcel of the battles. Probably, they might have developed good remedies particularly for wound healing , may also be for fractures. But what were their medicines is the work for investigation which will give a new dimension to our medical sciences; this is because the way they were able to check pathogens or infections in absence of antibiotics.

If we go on mythological grounds , Ashwani Kumars are considered our ancient experts on animal diseases. Obviously, it is to be investigated what they were knowing which made them equal to the god . .But any research in our ancient science should be away from emotions and have to be based on modern principles of investigations.

When we think about parasitic diseases , there is mention that our ancient scientists were aware about existence of helminths and this has been mentioned in our vedas. However, the important question to be discussed is whether these parasites / helminths were considered harmful or beneficial to the health of man or animals; our search on history of parasitology has informed that though Hippocrate and Aristotle were aware about the parasites , they have not considered them harmful to the health and they have hypothesized  that life generates spontaneously.Therefore, it will be interesting to know what our ancient Hindu scientists have their take in these matters.Whether they were thinking differently ?

One thing appears clear that this is the time we should pay attention on these issues which will not only place our ancient science at right place but may also help to know alternate way of treating infections , without use of antibiotics- a much needed field in light of development of antibiotic resistance making them redundant.We say that Nalanda University , including its library, was burnt and flames were seen for weeks together ; what were our treasures in Takshila vishwa vidyalaya ?; likewise, there were many old manuscripts and literature that have been destroyed by different cultures. Therefore, it is important to search related literature , particularly of of the nations , societies which came in contact with Ancient Hindu.There is the need of the hour that Government of India should come forward to finance such programs and take help of eminent scientists in this endeavor.