Roots of Ayurveda

Download a PDF version of the comic in Italian/French

The Ayuryog project examines the histories of yoga, ayurveda and rasaśāstra (Indian alchemy and iatrochemistry) from the tenth century to the present, focussing on the disciplines' health, rejuvenation and longevity practices. The goals of the project are to reveal the entanglements of these historical traditions, and to trace the trajectories of their evolution as components of today's global healthcare and personal development industries. The five-year ERC-funded project is based at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Vienna University, Inform and at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Our webcomic follows the path of Dr Dagmar Wujastyk, an indologist travelling from Austria to India to meet a family of practitioners of Ayurveda. She will be accompanied on her trip by Atreya, a 452 years old sage, and his disciple Agnivesha…

The science behind the comic

Dagmar Wujastyk (researcher)

Dagmar Wujastyk is an indologist specialized in the history and literature of classical Indian medicine (Ayurveda), iatrochemistry (rasaśāstra), and yoga and South Asian history. She is Associate Professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, and Research Fellow at the University of Vienna. Her publications include Modern and Global Ayurveda - Pluralism and Paradigms (SUNY Press) and Well-mannered medicine. Medical Ethics and Etiquette in the Sanskrit Medical Classics (OUP NY). She is the editor of a special volume of Asiatische Studien/ Études Asiatiques, entitled "Histories of Mercury in Medicine across Asia and beyond" and Associate Editor of Asian Medicine.

Alice Milani (artist)

Alice Milani (born in Pisa in 1986) studied etching and printmaking techniques in Turin and Brussells. In 2009 she started making comics and self-productions within the collective La Trama. She published several comic books in Italy: Wisława Szymborska (2015) and Marie Curie (2017) for BeccoGiallo Publishing. She is also the co-author of Tumulto, a four hands comic book made with Silvia Rocchi (Eris Publishing - 2016). She published short stories on Linus, Lo Straniero, Delebile and Graphic News. Since 2017 she is the publishing director of Rami, a fiction comics series at BeccoGiallo Publishing.

Start reading