The Ayurveda Scholar Who Guided a University and a Tradition: The Story of Prof. Om Prakash Upadhyaya

On 2 June 1951, in the village of Maandal in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, Om Prakash Upadhyaya was born into a landscape where traditional knowledge of herbs and healing still lived close to daily life. He chose Ayurveda not merely as a profession but as a path of scholarship and service, rising through academic ranks to become one of the respected voices of the system in modern India.

He served as Professor and Head of Department at the National Institute of Ayurveda in Jaipur, where he taught, researched and guided students in the foundational principles of Ayurvedic medicine. In July 2011 he was appointed Vice Chancellor of Guru Ravidas Ayurved University in Hoshiarpur, Punjab—a responsibility he carried for many years, working to strengthen Ayurvedic education, research and institutional standards. He had earlier been associated with Dayanand Ayurved College in Jalandhar. Through these roles he helped shape the training of future practitioners and the academic standing of Ayurveda itself.

In 2014 the Government of India conferred upon him the Padma Shri for his contributions to the field of medicine. The same year he also received the President’s Certificate of Honour in Sanskrit, recognising his deeper engagement with the classical knowledge that underpins Ayurvedic practice. He is married to Bhanwari Devi.

One evening, after a day of administrative work and discussions with faculty, a young Ayurvedic student asked him, “Sir, in an age of modern hospitals and new technologies, what keeps you so committed to Ayurveda and to building its institutions?”

Prof. Om Prakash Upadhyaya answered with the quiet steadiness of a teacher who had spent a lifetime between classical texts and living patients.

“Ayurveda is not only a system of treatment; it is a way of understanding life, balance and the body’s own capacity to heal,” he said. “If we teach it well, research it honestly and place it in strong institutions, it will continue to serve people for generations. The university, the classroom and the clinic are all part of the same work—keeping the knowledge alive so that it can help those who need it.”

And so the Ayurveda practitioner from a Rajasthan village who became a professor at the National Institute of Ayurveda, who led Guru Ravidas Ayurved University, and who received the Padma Shri for his service, continues to stand as a quiet guardian of an ancient science—one who believed that tradition, when taught with care and rigour, remains a living gift to the present.