Ashtavaidya, a unique practice of Ayurvedic medicine is an amalgamation of
the codified Ayurvedic medical knowledge and non-codified folk medical tradition of India, and is practised by a few physician families in Kerala. Like many other forms of indigenous knowledge, the Ashtavaidya tradition suffers from lack of support, and the rapidly diminishing numbers of practitioners threatens its very existence. Annamma Spudich and
Indudharan Menon of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS),
Bangalore, have been interviewing the remaining Ashtavaidyas since 1997, and recording the details of their training and practice in an effort to preserve their knowledge for posterity.