Ayurveda’s Identity: Beyond Products and Propaganda

Ayurveda today finds itself in a difficult space. On one side, there is relentless negative propaganda on social media that unsettles both senior and young practitioners. On the other, there is a temptation to hide the unique identity of Ayurveda and explain everything in the language of modern biomedicine. This may look like a way to escape insecurity — but in reality, it weakens Ayurveda rather than protecting it.

Ayurveda is not a separate system because it sells “Ayurvedic” products or services. Its distinctiveness is not a marketing strategy. Ayurveda is separate because it is founded on its own philosophy, theory, and way of knowing. The categories of doṣa, dhātu, rasa, agni, and pramāṇa are not borrowed from anywhere else. They form a coherent framework that has guided practice for centuries and continues to give meaning to healing today.

If we abandon this framework and use only biomedical terms to validate ourselves, we risk training a generation of practitioners who no longer think like Vaidyas. They may become fluent in laboratory language, but they will lose the confidence that comes from standing within their own discipline. Dialogue with modern medicine is important, but real dialogue requires dignity. It is not dialogue if we walk in by denying who we are.

Youngsters struggling to make their daily bread often feel that their insecurity will ease if they move away from Ayurveda’s identity. The truth is the opposite. The world does not need another copy of modern medicine. Patients turn to Ayurveda precisely because it offers what others cannot — an integrated vision of body, mind, and environment, grounded in a philosophy of balance and meaning.

Affirming this identity is not arrogance; it is clarity. Survival will not come from surrender. The only way forward is to transmit Ayurveda as what it truly is: a living knowledge tradition with its own epistemic integrity, ready to engage but never reduced.