Cerulli: Ayurveda and Knowledge for Long Life

Dr. Anthony Cerulli, Professor of South Asian Studies, holds a photograph outside the Discovery Building from his art project called "Manuscriptistan," which explores archives and manuscript cultures in India through ethnography and photography. This image shows the hands of a librarian holding a small palm leaf manuscript int he south Indian state of Kerala.

Anthony Cerulli studies Ayurveda, a centuries-old alternative medicine practice. As a grad student, when traveling in India to pore over ancient texts, he noticed something interesting in the village. “This one family was running a clinic out of their house,” remembers Cerulli, now a UW–Madison professor of South Asian studies. “They were using these 2,000-year-old Sanskrit texts as manuals for their practice. And I thought to myself, ‘You know, I’m excited about this literature, but it’s even more exciting to see how they’re still using the literature.’”

The full article, pictures and video of Professor Anthony Cerulli discussing his research can be read here.