Home to market : responses, resurgence and transformation of Ayurveda from 1830s to 1920

The article explores the early transformation of Ayurveda into a) a system of medicine, which has two components, one, a knowledge base and two, institutionally recognized professionals b) an industry, producing traditional medicine and related products for the market, in which one, the production system and two, the market, are important. Using the snippets of information from archival documents and secondary sources, we argue that the institutionalization of manufacturing and training were survival strategies, in the course of which a certain modernity emerged, through negotiations with modern medicine. We identify three phases in production, namely, that of noprice/ no direct remuneration production within a familial mode (the first phase), a variant of petty commodity production (the second), and finally the slow entry of financial capital and mass manufacturing. We note that the structural transformation of ayurveda into an industry has a distinct trajectory, in spite of the fact that it does share important features with the experience of the transformation of traditional industries in Europe and India. Key words: Ayurveda, Institutionalization, Traditional medicine, Kerala JEL Codes: L65, O 43, I12, I18