Festivals and medical relevance (with special reference to medieval Andhra society)

Abstract

The physicians of indigenous medical science believed that the climatic changes are one of the causes for diseases. They observed that severity of a disease depends on the movements of the planets. Thus, they prescribed ritucharya as a remedy to their evil influence and also, made the people to follow some of the important regulations for the maintenance of health by incorporating them into the religious rituals by instituting some new festivals and customs like Vinayakachaturthi, Ugadi and Dasara etc., in course of time. The primary data regarding the subject can be found available in the contemporary literary works, medical texts, travellers accounts, inscriptions and the temple monuments.