Earlier this year, Dominik Wujastyk was interviewed for the Bangalore-based Scrolls & Leaves podcast series curated by the science journalists Mary-Rose Abraham and Gayathri Vaidyanathan. He spoke about the description of epidemic disease in the Carakasaṃhitā, the sister treatise of the Suśrutasaṃhitā.
Atreya, the renowned teacher of Ayurveda, is walking with his pupils on the banks of the river Ganga in Kampilya. Ominous signs of an epidemic shadow the grandeur of the ancient kingdom. Atreya explains to his students how an epidemic arises from degraded environmental conditions. And he points to their cause: the unrighteous actions of a particular group of citizens. Sanskrit scholar Dominik Wujastyk of the University of Alberta in Canada, narrates this compelling tale from one of the oldest Ayurvedic texts. It’s a story of surprising resonance with our current global situation.
— Scrolls & Leaves website
Listen to the full podcast here.