Great scientist friends of Ayurveda no more

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.” Rabindranath Tagore In July 2024, we lost two eminent medical stalwarts of Modern (conventional) Medicine, who brought that dawn for integrative medicine but lost their fight against the malady affecting them – Dr. Marthanda Verma Sankaran Valiathan and Dr. Ashok B. Vaidya. Both of them were renowned medical scientists nationally and internationally and suitably rewarded for their contribution to medical science. I was fortunate to be associated with both of them when I was working in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as the Program Officer for Summer Studentship, Pharmacology, Traditional Medicine and Ethics.Born in Mavelikara on May 24, 1934, Dr. Valiathan was the alumnus of the first batch of medical students of Government Medical College, Trivandrum, in 1951. When he left us on July 17 at the age of 90 years, it created a great void among progressive-minded scientists. He had his higher training in the University of Liverpool and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His training in cardiac surgery followed at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University in the USA and later at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada as a Fellow. This was the time when the first heart transplant in Cape town, South Africa, happened and he told us how skeptical people were at that time about it. After he became the Founding Director of Sree Chitra Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum (SCTIMST) he promoted the manufacture of blood bags, devices for cardiac and vascular conditions. He spoke so proudly about the Indigenous devices made by his institute’s Biotechnology Department that after listening to his inspiring talk we all left the hall with an elated sense of “Atmanirbharata,” an oft-quoted phrase these days. The cost-effective Indian Chitra valve used on a patient in 1990 is still doing well. It was interesting to hear him describe how the institute tried to explore the possibility of making compatible vascular grafts by collaborating with the textile industry of Coimbatore. Among many technological products developed under Dr. Valiathan’s leadership, the blood bags are now the biggest export product of the institute. Besides modern medicine, modern science, and technology, Dr. Valiathan was also a keen learner of the profound knowledge of the classics of our traditional medical systems, mainly Ayurveda. I met him personally in the ICMR in the chamber of Dr. G. V. Satyavati, Director General then, when Dr. Valiathan was discussing with her about the use of Arogya pacha (Trichopus zeylanicus) and Glory Lily (Gloriosa superba) among tribals. That was the first time I saw Dr. Valiathan so close. Thereafter, I met him several times in meetings related to traditional medicine research and ethics. Many know about his passion for pursuing indigenous innovative devices and interest in Ayurvedic science, but he was equally keen about ethics in profession and research. When Dr. Valiathan became the Vice-Chancellor of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), he invited us from ICMR to conduct a workshop on ethics there. As the Chairman of the Central Ethics Committee on Human Research at ICMR, I used to observe his balanced views on ethical issues. His interest in ethics made me invite him as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the NIH Grant that was awarded to me for bioethics education during my tenure at ICMR. He was kind enough to accept that and provide us with the needed guidance from his experience as an ethics-abiding scientist and educator. In the first meeting of the Advisory Committee, I had to conduct the meeting myself for the first time as my Chief was absent. I was nervous to do that as a junior officer but he put me at ease by stating that “the field is yours to lead.” When I informed him about the third NIH Grant for bioethics that was awarded to me, he congratulated me and told me, “Your tenacity in pursuing the Grant paid off.” Dr. N. K. Ganguly, the then Director General, ICMR, gave me the charge of revising the ICMR Guidelines which were released in 2006. I requested Dr. Valiathan to write the preface for that which he very willingly did stating that this was a big effort on my part without assistance. At Manipal, as Dr. TMA Pai Endowment Chair, I started a 2-month course in bioethics for which I requested him to inaugurate it. He passionately spoke about the importance of observing ethics in research and practice on that occasion. He was very happy when I helped set up the Centre for Bioethics in MAHE as my Endowment Chair activity during the tenure of Dr. K. Ramnarayan and Dr. Vinod Bhat as the Vice-Chancellor. On another visit to Manipal, along with Dr. Joseph Thomas, in charge of the Centre for Bioethics at that time, I spent almost half a day with him listening to his passionate description of how despite the strong support from the Travancore royal family and then Chief Minister, Mr. Achuta Menon, to establish SCTIMST, he had struggled to get the necessary permissions from the corridors of power in New Delhi for matters related to the institute. The Declaration of Helsinki released by the World Medical Assembly in Tokyo in 1975 recommended setting up an ethics committee to review research. The ICMR Policy document of 1980 on research involving humans mentioned about the ethics committee. Since Dr. Valiathan wanted to test devices in humans, an ethics committee for the institute was constituted in November 1982. Later, in October 1983, a sitting judge of the Kerala High Court was appointed as the Chairman. This was perhaps one of the first ethics committees of its kind in the Government sector in India to decide on the issues related to human use of devices. It was amusing to hear Dr. Valiathan describe how they struggled to decide on issues related to the safety of the devices in humans, since at that time no detailed Indian ethical guidance and standard operating procedures that exist now were available. Therefore, the decisions depend on values and existing Indian legalities for the protection of participants’ rights, safety, and welfare. He was always keen to learn more about ethical issues. When ICMR had organized a meeting in 2005 to discuss about setting up a Clinical Trial Registry, we saw him patiently listening to the presentations and discussions the whole day. He told me that this would be a desirable and important exercise for India to bring transparency about clinical trials in India. As the ICMR Program Officer for traditional medicine research, I was familiar with the names of the classical texts in Ayurveda. However, Dr. Valiathan’s writing on Caraka Samhita gave me a better insight into what I could gather on ethics from it. I was fortunate enough to listen to his talk on the ancient science of Ayurveda and about the position of Sushruta in society. The study on Sushruta was followed by a study on Vagbhatta – three great vaidyas of yore. The physicians of famous Ayurveda Schools highly appreciated the way he fluently recited the Sanskrit shlokas of the Ayurvedic texts. After my paper with Dr. Pradeep Dua as co-author on Indian regulations related to traditional medicine was published in the Indian journal Current Science, I got a call from Dr. Valiathan. I was pleasantly surprised and felt honored when a recipient of several national and international awards like him congratulated me and appreciated the contents of that paper. For the platinum Jubilee celebration of Trivandrum Medical College, thanks to the inaugural papers I had with me from my late father-in-law, Er. R. Velayudhan Nair, who executed the construction of the college, I was preparing an article for the souvenir regarding the historical beginning of that college. The students in the first batch of Trivandrum Medical College were familiar with my father-in-law and the construction team. When I sent him a photo of the Chief Minister, other ministers, college authorities, construction team, and first-batch students, he was thrilled to know my connection and said this photo was a gift for him and excitedly told me where exactly he and his classmate, Dr. K. V. K. Das, another renowned physician, standing next to him was in that picture [Figure 1]. In return he sent me the photo of 75 scientists honored by the Government during the 75th year of independence. He was undoubtedly one of them. We were in touch occasionally after that when he sought my opinion on certain ethical aspects. Those moments were very dear to me and I felt lost when I heard about his passing away.Figure 1: From the archives of Government Medical College Trivandrum: Last standing row from right of viewer’s view– Dr. M. S. Valiathan and standing below him third from right of viewer’s view– Er. Velayudhan NairTwo years younger than him, another great medical scientist, Dr. D. B. Vaidya left us earlier in the same month of July on the 8th at the age of 88 years. Born in a renowned Vaidya family of Saurashtra on November 27, 1936, he was influenced by Ayurveda as his grandfather was the famous Aryavaidya Mayaram Sundarji. He grew up in an environment that was rich in intellectual discourses on art, culture and literature, medicine, and the patriotic struggle of those days. He built his career in clinical pharmacology and patient care which was naturally influenced by Ayurveda. During his Merck International Fellowship at Yale University, he became a friend of Dr. Robert J. Levine, a clinical pharmacologist himself, special ethics consultant for the well-known Belmont Report and Chair of the Steering Committee of CIOMS Guidelines 2002. I first met Dr. Vaidya at an ICMR meeting on the use of herbal remedies in viral hepatitis and was awe-struck by his emphatic inputs. For the disease-oriented research using herbal remedies initiated in 1985, ICMR followed the reverse pharmacology approach. Dr. Vaidya explained to me about that concept during that meeting. Much later along with Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, he wrote extensively about reverse pharmacology kindling the curiosity of the western researchers about this approach. After the first meeting in ICMR, I met him during a Conference held in Chennai on viral hepatitis as I was the Research Officer for the Chennai site of that ICMR research. He recognized me and asked me to write my contact details in a small diary that he had. I was wondering why so because I was a very small fry at that time but felt elated that I was given that consideration. In the same conference I met Dr. M. D. Nair who was a good friend of Dr. Vaidya. Both of them were interested in traditional medicine and I got associated with both of them because of my position as Program Officer for traditional medicine research in ICMR Headquarters by then. He was the rightful choice by the Government along with Dr. Dahanukar and some other scientists to present in the House of Lords, UK what Ayurveda science was because lack of knowledge and appreciation had made both UK and US place Ayurveda in a lower category of classification of complementary therapies. Dr. Vaidya became Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Committee for ICMR’s traditional medicine research after Dr. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury. In that capacity, I learnt more about his knowledge of Ayurveda and modern medicine for promoting an integrated approach. There were other occasions too when I listened to his talks on the topics given to him by Ayush authorities which were interspersed with Sanskrit couplets from the classics. I also saw his anger when at an August gathering of the Department of Ayush, a foreign-settled Indian who came with his team of Western researchers tried to cow down the Indian side of explanation to a query raised by his team. He defended our heritage of ancient medical science whenever or wherever he could. When he learnt that I was going to an ethics-related conference in the US where I would be meeting his friend Dr. Robert Levine, he asked me to convey to him his fond regards. When I told Dr. Levine about it, he was very much touched and remarked how amazing Dr. Vaidya’s research acumen was. ICMR and CSIR utilized Dr. Vaidya’s expertise for the promotion of research in drug development from herbals. Later, when he became Director of Kasturba Health Society, Medical Research Center, Mumbai, our interactions increased as I was the Program Officer for the ICMR’s Center for Reverse Pharmacology initiated there. I felt happy that even after my retirement, our association continued for events organised by his Center. At present it is also an ICMR Product Development Center. I met him once at a World Ayurveda conference where I was to deliver a talk on ICMR’s ethical guidelines. His zeal to keep abreast of the recent advances was such that despite his age-related handicap then, he attended the session where I was to give the talk along with other renowned persons. When my talk was over, he appreciated it by initiating a standing ovation. I was quite emotionally moved by this gesture of appreciation. When I was invited to be a member of his institution’s Technical Advisory Board, I was stunned to learn that he was under treatment for cancer. This however did not deter him from attending the meetings under restricted conditions and giving fluent advice even for molecular activities. During the Board’s last meeting on 31st May, despite his condition, he was actively engaged in discussing some points, giving his input and reminiscing instances from the past. It was like a bolt out of the blue that I received the news of his passing away on 8th July. Dr. Valiathan and Dr. Vaidya were the ambassadors of Ayurveda trying to create a bridge between “Shastra” and “Science” by promoting Ayurvedic biology which the Principal Scientific Adviser took up under the scheme “A Science Initiative in Ayurveda” and seven projects were thus initiated in top institutions of science and Ayurveda in India. Both these medical scions were outstanding and sincerely committed sons of our country whose loss to the world of Indian progress in Science and Technology, Ayurveda and integrative medicine is irreparable. May their souls rest in peace and the light they left behind guide us to fulfill their dreams for India. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.

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