Inclusion of astrology in BAMS is retrogressive and needs to be withdrawn, scientists urge Ayurvedic council

Scientists on Wednesday came down heavily on the National Council for Indian Systems of Medicine for inclusion of “medical astrology” as a part of the graduation curricula on Ayurvedic medicine, observing that “distant objects like planets do not affect human physiology or psychology in any way.”

“This sort of unscientific belief system incorporated into the curriculum will produce medical practitioners with an irrational bent of mind and will undermine the medical practice itself. We believe this downward spiral of Indian education will damage our nation irreparably,” Breakthrough Science Society, a registered body of scientists, said in a statement.

The sharp criticism comes in the wake of NCISM introducing astrology as an optional subject in the five year degree programme on Ayurvedic medicine.

The course involves 25 video lectures over 10 months offering “astrological analyses” of abdominal diseases, fever, heart disease and tuberculosis, among other health disorders, and connecting properties of medicines with planets and constellations. More than 700 students have registered for the course so far, as per the NCISM, which is the regulator for Ayurvedic medicine in India.

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“The inclusion of ‘Medical Astrology’ as a subject (even as optional) at BAMS is indeed highly retrogressive. 'Astrology' has never been rigorously tested experimentally, and remains a mystical field which can cause severe damage to the patients who are treated on the basis of 'astrological' predictions,” SC Lakhotia, distinguished professor at Banaras Hindu University and one of India’s most respected scientists on Ayurveda told DH.

Observing that astronomy and astrology must be clearly differentiated, he pointed out that different astrologers could make very different 'predictions' for similar astrological parameters.

Introducing the course in its website, the NCISM said, “It’s believed that during olden days astrology was a flourishing branch of studies. In history there are many recorded incidents of accurate prediction of future events. Medical astrology is a subject which discusses one’s likely diseases based on birth charts and planetary positions.”

GL Krishna, an Ayurveda physician and Homi Bhabha Fellow at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru said sporadic references to the usefulness of astrology in prognosticating and managing illnesses were indeed found in the Ayurveda classics.

But “the use of mantras was infrequent, and astrology played a minimal, if not nil, role” in Ayurveda’s approach to the practice of medicine, he wrote in an article last month in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics quoting MS Valiathan, a doyen of Ayurvedic research.

“Instead of taking Ayurveda or any other traditional healthcare system forward to more rational analytical levels, teaching of such subjects will push AYUSH disciplines to 'darker’ ages. This step by NCSIM deserves to be urgently withdrawn,” Lakhotia said.