The Art of War and the Art of Medicine both draw on ancient wisdom. Sun Tzu, the philosopher-warrior of ancient China wrote, “Winning 100 battles by fighting the enemy requires immense skill and intelligence, but winning 100 battles without fighting a single battle is the real art of war which avoids the exorbitant costs of fighting 100 battles.” But then such victories, silent and unspectacular nonevents, are not to the liking of either rulers or the ruled. Ancient Indian wisdom echo similar views. Chanakya or Kautilya, who assisted Chandragupta Maurya in establishing the Mauryan Empire and played a role in the defeat of Alexander the Great wrote Chanakya Niti, a treatise on statecraft which mentions that in strategy, one should explore both the pros and cons. The losses should not outweigh the gains. He also wrote that if the end could be achieved by non-military methods, an armed conflict was not advisable. Ayurveda, the 5,000 years old system of natural healing which originated in Indian Vedic culture, strives to identify the ideal state of balance of a person and offer solutions using diet, herbs, music, massage treatments and meditation to restore the body’s balance. The wisdom and art of these two ancient civilisations cannot match the fast paced and impatient era, in which art of hockey got usurped by Astroturf and the art of cricket by T20, putting up cricketers for auction. Priorities are dictated by power dynamics accelerated by market forces.
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