Paira Mall
Dr. Paira Mall M.D., M.R.C.S., L R.C.P. London (1874-1957) was an Indian-born medical doctor, linguist and collector for Henry Wellcome's Historical Medical Museum, in London[1].[2]
Biography
[edit]Born in India, Paira-Mall came from a family of jewellers. His father, Lala Buddha Mall, was a jeweller in Amritsar, India.
Paira-Mall began his higher education in London in 1897 and continued his studies at the University of Tübingen, where he focused on medicine and philosophy.[3] In 1900, Paira-Mall received his doctorate in medicine from the medical faculty of the University of Munich. His dissertation was entitled On Digestion in Birds, a Contribution to the Comparative Physiology of Digestion.
Dr. Paira-Mall practiced at the London Hospital and also served as an army surgeon in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
He was fluent in German, French, Italian, Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi, Punjabi, Arabic and English.
He was a founding member of the India Society, founded in London, in 1910. India Society, later the Royal India Society aimed to foster appreciation and study of Indian culture, publishing works that highlight the finest examples of Indian artistic traditions and supporting the preservation and development of traditional Indian arts and education.
In 1911, he was recruited to work for the Henry Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, in London, to collect objects from South Asia that showed the art and science of healing, and medicinal plants in Ayurvedic medicine[4] - for use in Wellcome's chemical research labs in the UK. He also acquired local medical knowledge by copying and translating manuscripts.[5] He collected for 15 years.[1]
Legacy
[edit]From 16 Nov 2017 to 8 April 2018, the Wellcome Collection featured items collected by Paira Mall, including medical objects, paintings, and manuscripts, in the exhibition "Ayurvedic Man: Encounters with Indian Medicine."[6][4][5][7][8] It also included Paira Mall's written correspondence with Wellcome and his staff while Mall was traveling.[4][5][7][9] According to Apollo magazine, the letters from Mall help trace "the movement of medical and cultural heritage across continents and cultures."[10]
Further reading
[edit]The following books are about Paira Mall and his work:
- Allan, Nigel, Pearls of the Orient: Asian Treasures from the Wellcome Library (London: The Wellcome Trust, 2003)
- Friedlander, Peter G., The WIHM Hindi Collection
- Larson, Frances, An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Muñoz, Bárbara Rodríguez, Ayurvedic man : encounters with Indian medicine (Wellcome Collection, 2017)
References
[edit]- ^ a b Prasad, Aarathi (2018). "Encounters with Indian medicine". The Lancet. 391 (10117): 196–197. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30025-4. ISSN 0140-6736. S2CID 54240383.
- ^ "Paira Mall | Making Britain".
- ^ "Detailseite - Archivportal-D". www.archivportal-d.de. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
- ^ a b c Kennedy, Maev (November 9, 2017). "How Wellcome sent a medicine collector to wander Asia for a decade". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
- ^ a b c Kumar, Tanuj (January 26, 2018). "Medical encounters between the East and the West". LiveMint. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
- ^ "Ayurvedic Man: Encounters with Indian Medicine". Wellcome Collection. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
16 November 2017—8 April 2018
- ^ a b Clove editors (November 29, 2017). "Ayurvedic Man: Ancient understandings of medicine". Clove Magazine. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
- ^ Moody, Oliver (2023-07-31). "Ayurvedic Man: Vintage Kashmiri circumciser, anyone?". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ^ Leonard, Julia Platt (November 22, 2017). "Ayurveda: The ancient practice that healed with turmeric before it was cool". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
- ^ Muñoz, Bárbara Rodríguez (30 October 2017). "Who owns the heritage of traditional medicine?". Apollo. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
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