A civilization encompasses the workings of the several large societies with the roots of historic past. The characteristics and elements of la civilization influence its people. A civilization is well confined to a well-defined geographical region with ecological variations. There are advantages of studying the cultural history of social, behavioral phenomena of psychiatric interest in a living and vibrant society. The richness of a civilization’s cultural tradition including religion, philosophy, moral percepts, literature, law and medicine means that one can draw a large body of information that describes ancient subsequent thoughts and habit pattern and related ways of life. A civilization whose traditions have persisted and that manifests its characteristics in local communities that still preserve the elements means those contemporary anthropological studies that afford an opportunity to evaluate the blood of the civilization. A central aim of this paper is to search for the inner logic and substance of psychiatric phenomena in traditional India. Intellectual features of Indian culture are used as hypotheses to prove the material or content of psychiatric conditions and the social practices and institutions that appropriated them. An appreciation of the cultural roots, manifestations and meanings of psychiatric phenomena provides a foundation for later examination of the psychiatric enterprises in contemporary India. A fundamental assumption is that psychiatric phenomena were inherent in the populations of the subcontinent and that societies there had evolved comprehensible and effective ways of coping with it, modernity representing but one phase or version of India’s indigenous psychiatry